245 research outputs found
The FruitShell French synthesis system at the Blizzard 2023 Challenge
This paper presents a French text-to-speech synthesis system for the Blizzard
Challenge 2023. The challenge consists of two tasks: generating high-quality
speech from female speakers and generating speech that closely resembles
specific individuals. Regarding the competition data, we conducted a screening
process to remove missing or erroneous text data. We organized all symbols
except for phonemes and eliminated symbols that had no pronunciation or zero
duration. Additionally, we added word boundary and start/end symbols to the
text, which we have found to improve speech quality based on our previous
experience. For the Spoke task, we performed data augmentation according to the
competition rules. We used an open-source G2P model to transcribe the French
texts into phonemes. As the G2P model uses the International Phonetic Alphabet
(IPA), we applied the same transcription process to the provided competition
data for standardization. However, due to compiler limitations in recognizing
special symbols from the IPA chart, we followed the rules to convert all
phonemes into the phonetic scheme used in the competition data. Finally, we
resampled all competition audio to a uniform sampling rate of 16 kHz. We
employed a VITS-based acoustic model with the hifigan vocoder. For the Spoke
task, we trained a multi-speaker model and incorporated speaker information
into the duration predictor, vocoder, and flow layers of the model. The
evaluation results of our system showed a quality MOS score of 3.6 for the Hub
task and 3.4 for the Spoke task, placing our system at an average level among
all participating teams
Emergence of central recirculation zone in a V-shaped premixed swirling flame
This paper presents an experimental study on the emergence of the central
recirculation zone (CRZ) in a V-shaped premixed swirling flame, using
simultaneous measurement of particle image velocimetry (PIV) and CH*
chemiluminescence. The results show that either increasing the Reynolds number
(Re) or decreasing the equivalence ratio ({\phi}) would facilitate the
emergence of CRZ, and the inner shear layer (ISL) plays an essential role in
governing the characteristics of CRZ. Further analysis demonstrates that the
CRZ emergence can be promoted by higher ISL intensity but suppressed by
enhanced viscous diffusion owing to higher flame temperature. As such, the CRZ
formation can be interpreted as the outcome of a competition between the ISL
intensity, i.e., circulation, and the vorticity consumption due to viscous
diffusion. This competition physically corresponds to a special Reynolds
number, Re_s, defined as the ratio between the ISL circulation ({\Gamma}) and
the ISL effective viscosity ({\nu}_s), with a simplified heat loss model
proposed for the temperature and viscosity estimations of the ISL. The
outputting {\Gamma}-{\nu}_s plot yields a single boundary line separating the
cases with and without CRZ, which points to a common critical Re_s of about
637, justifying the generality of the present criterion for lean-premixed
V-shaped swirling flames of various operating conditions. Unlike most previous
works which study the CRZ of a swirling flame from the point of vortex
breakdown, the present work reveals the importance of enhanced viscous
diffusion, caused by flame heating, in suppressing the CRZ emergence
Exploring Effective Mask Sampling Modeling for Neural Image Compression
Image compression aims to reduce the information redundancy in images. Most
existing neural image compression methods rely on side information from
hyperprior or context models to eliminate spatial redundancy, but rarely
address the channel redundancy. Inspired by the mask sampling modeling in
recent self-supervised learning methods for natural language processing and
high-level vision, we propose a novel pretraining strategy for neural image
compression. Specifically, Cube Mask Sampling Module (CMSM) is proposed to
apply both spatial and channel mask sampling modeling to image compression in
the pre-training stage. Moreover, to further reduce channel redundancy, we
propose the Learnable Channel Mask Module (LCMM) and the Learnable Channel
Completion Module (LCCM). Our plug-and-play CMSM, LCMM, LCCM modules can apply
to both CNN-based and Transformer-based architectures, significantly reduce the
computational cost, and improve the quality of images. Experiments on the
public Kodak and Tecnick datasets demonstrate that our method achieves
competitive performance with lower computational complexity compared to
state-of-the-art image compression methods.Comment: 10 page
S3IM: Stochastic Structural SIMilarity and Its Unreasonable Effectiveness for Neural Fields
Recently, Neural Radiance Field (NeRF) has shown great success in rendering
novel-view images of a given scene by learning an implicit representation with
only posed RGB images. NeRF and relevant neural field methods (e.g., neural
surface representation) typically optimize a point-wise loss and make
point-wise predictions, where one data point corresponds to one pixel.
Unfortunately, this line of research failed to use the collective supervision
of distant pixels, although it is known that pixels in an image or scene can
provide rich structural information. To the best of our knowledge, we are the
first to design a nonlocal multiplex training paradigm for NeRF and relevant
neural field methods via a novel Stochastic Structural SIMilarity (S3IM) loss
that processes multiple data points as a whole set instead of process multiple
inputs independently. Our extensive experiments demonstrate the unreasonable
effectiveness of S3IM in improving NeRF and neural surface representation for
nearly free. The improvements of quality metrics can be particularly
significant for those relatively difficult tasks: e.g., the test MSE loss
unexpectedly drops by more than 90% for TensoRF and DVGO over eight novel view
synthesis tasks; a 198% F-score gain and a 64% Chamfer distance
reduction for NeuS over eight surface reconstruction tasks. Moreover, S3IM is
consistently robust even with sparse inputs, corrupted images, and dynamic
scenes.Comment: ICCV 2023 main conference. Code: https://github.com/Madaoer/S3IM. 14
pages, 5 figures, 17 table
Probing Complex-energy Topology via Non-Hermitian Absorption Spectroscopy in a Trapped Ion Simulator
Non-Hermitian systems generically have complex energies, which may host
topological structures, such as links or knots. While there has been great
progress in experimentally engineering non-Hermitian models in quantum
simulators, it remains a significant challenge to experimentally probe complex
energies in these systems, thereby making it difficult to directly diagnose
complex-energy topology. Here, we experimentally realize a two-band
non-Hermitian model with a single trapped ion whose complex eigenenergies
exhibit the unlink, unknot or Hopf link topological structures. Based on
non-Hermitian absorption spectroscopy, we couple one system level to an
auxiliary level through a laser beam and then experimentally measure the
population of the ion on the auxiliary level after a long period of time.
Complex eigenenergies are then extracted, illustrating the unlink, unknot or
Hopf link topological structure. Our work demonstrates that complex energies
can be experimentally measured in quantum simulators via non-Hermitian
absorption spectroscopy, thereby opening the door for exploring various
complex-energy properties in non-Hermitian quantum systems, such as trapped
ions, cold atoms, superconducting circuits or solid-state spin systems.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure
Cardiotoxicity of lung cancer-related immunotherapy versus chemotherapy: a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
BackgroundPrevious clinical randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have demonstrated that immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) cause various toxicities during cancer treatment, but the effects of different inhibitors in combination with chemotherapy for cardiotoxicity remain controversial. The aim of the present study was to assess cardiotoxicity caused by programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), programmed cell death-Ligand 1 (PD-L1), and cytotoxic T lymphocyte associate protein-4 (CTLA-4) in combination with chemotherapy to treat lung cancer.MethodsThe following ICIs were included in the present study: durvalumab, avelumab, ipilimumab, atezolizumab, pembrolizumab, cemiplimab, and nivolumab. The relevant information was extracted using a predefined data extraction table, and the risk of bias was assessed in randomized controlled trials using the Cochrane Bias Risk tool. The main outcomes were hypertension, heart failure, pericardial effusion, and other adverse cardiac events. The random effects model was used to conduct a paired meta-analysis, and a random effects network meta-analysis was then performed within a Bayesian framework.ResultsIn total, 17 RCTs were included in the present study. There were 11,063 individuals in the experimental and control groups, with an average age greater than 60 years. Based on the evaluation of all drug classes in RCTs, CTLA-4+chemotherapy (RR, -0.69 [95% CI, 2.91-1.52] and PD-L1 (RR, -0.21 [95% CI, -1.03-0.60]) were less cardiotoxic than the control arm, which indicated they were safer options for adverse cardiac events. PD-L1 alone was less cardiotoxic than PD-1 alone (RR, -0.57 [95% CI, -1.96-0.82]). Further, the dual immunotarget inhibitor, PD-1+CTLA-4, had the lowest SUCRA value and had the highest cardiotoxicity (SUCRA=9).ConclusionWhen classified according to drug type, CTLA-4+chemotherapy is associated with fewer cardiac adverse events compared to other treatments. Dual immunotarget inhibitors are more likely to have adverse cardiac reactions. Therefore, clinicians should consider this evidence when developing an ICI immunotherapy regimen for lung cancer.Systematic review registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero, identifier CRD42023360931
Nano selenium-doped TiO2 nanotube arrays on orthopedic implants for suppressing osteosarcoma growth
Osteosarcoma, the most common primary malignant bone tumor, is characterized by malignant cells producing osteoid or immature bone tissue. Most osteosarcoma patients require reconstructive surgery to restore the functional and structural integrity of the injured bone. Metal orthopedic implants are commonly used to restore the limb integrity in postoperative patients. However, conventional metal implants with a bioinert surface cannot inhibit the growth of any remaining cancer cells, resulting in a higher risk of cancer recurrence. Herein, we fabricate a selenium-doped TiO2 nanotube array (Se-doped TNA) film to modify the surface of medical pure titanium substrate, and evaluate the anti-tumor effect and biocompatibility of Se-doped TNA film. Moreover, we further explore the anti-tumor potential mechanism of Se-doped TNA film by studying the behaviors of human osteosarcoma cells in vitro. We provide a new pathway for achieving the anti-tumor function of orthopedic implants while keeping the biocompatibility, aiming to suppress the recurrence of osteosarcoma
The negative interplay between Aurora A/B and BRCA1/2 controls cancer cell growth and tumorigenesis via distinct regulation of cell cycle progression, cytokinesis, and tetraploidy
It is well known that the activation of Aurora A/B (Aur A/B) or inactivation of BRCA1/2 induces tumor formation. Others and we have reported that the mutual suppression between Aur A/B and BRCA1/2 may manipulate cancer cell growth and tumorigenesis, however, the interactive regulation and mechanism between these molecules are still elusive. In this study, by consecutive silencing of Aur A/B or/and BRCA1/2 with specific shRNAs, we showed that, in BRCA2-deficient pancreatic cancer cell line Capan-1 and in ovarian cancer cell line OVCA433, Aur A/B and BRCA1/2 inversely regulated the expression of each other likely through proteasome-mediated proteolysis but not through gene transcription. Aur A/B and BRCA1/2 conversely regulated cell cycle progression mainly through control of p53 and cyclin A. Moreover, the disruption of Aur A/B blocked abnormal cytokinesis and decreased cell multinuclearity and chromosome tetraploidy, whereas the deprivation of BRCA1/2 promoted the abnormal cytokinesis and enhanced the cell multinuclearity and tetraploidy. Furthermore, we showed by animal assays that the depletion of Aur A/B inhibited tumor growth of both cell lines, while the knockdown of BRCA1/2 promoted the tumor growth. However, the concurrent silencing of Aur A/B and BRCA1/2 diminished the effects of these molecules on the regulation of cell cycle, cytokinesis, and tetraploidy, leading to the burdened tumor sizes similar to those induced by scrambled shRNA-treated control cells. In summary, our study revealed that the negative interplay between Aur A/B and BRCA1/2 inversely controls the cell proliferation, cell cycle progression, cell multinuclearity, and tetraploidization to modulate tumorigenesis
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