A Statistically Principled and Computationally Efficient Approach to Speech Enhancement using Variational Autoencoders

Recent studies have explored the use of deep generative models of speech spectra based of variational autoencoders (VAEs), combined with unsupervised noise models, to perform speech enhancement. These studies developed iterative algorithms involving either Gibbs sampling or gradient descent at each step, making them computationally expensive. This paper proposes a variational inference method to iteratively estimate the power spectrogram of the clean speech. Our main contribution is the analytical derivation of the variational steps in which the en-coder of the pre-learned VAE can be used to estimate the varia-tional approximation of the true posterior distribution, using the very same assumption made to train VAEs. Experiments show that the proposed method produces results on par with the afore-mentioned iterative methods using sampling, while decreasing the computational cost by a factor 36 to reach a given performance .Comment: Submitted to INTERSPEECH 201

Méta-éthique et métaphysique : une tentative pour éclairer le préfixe " méta " par des analogies insulaires

On tentera d'éclairer par des analogies insulaires les liens entre méta-éthique, méta-esthétique et méta-physique de manière à éclairer le sens du préfixe méta

Estudio descriptivo de la adquisición de ítems del desarrollo psicomotor en lactantes desde Atención Primaria

La valoración del desarrollo psicomotor es una actividad obligada en la evaluación del niño sano y de niños con determinadas patologías y es un proceso complejo que precisa un seguimiento a lo largo del tiempo, que debe realizarse en función de la edad del niño y su edad gestacional. Por ello, los controles de salud en atención primaria son importantes, puesto que suponen el momento idóneo para dicha evaluación. El estudio de la adquisición de los ítems del desarrollo en determinadas poblaciones, da cierta información sobre los márgenes de edad en los que la mayoría de la población lo consigue, de forma que, cuanto más lejos se sitúe la adquisición de una nueva habilidad, hay más probabilidad de que haya una alteración. Por esto es importante conocer a qué edades se alcanzan los ítems del desarrollo y sus márgenes de seguridad.Grado en Medicin

New efficient constructive heuristics for the hybrid flowshop to minimise makespan: A computational evaluation of heuristics

This paper addresses the hybrid flow shop scheduling problem to minimise makespan, a well-known scheduling problem for which many constructive heuristics have been proposed in the literature. Nevertheless, the state of the art is not clear due to partial or non homogeneous comparisons. In this paper, we review these heuristics and perform a comprehensive computational evaluation to determine which are the most efficient ones. A total of 20 heuristics are implemented and compared in this study. In addition, we propose four new heuristics for the problem. Firstly, two memory-based constructive heuristics are proposed, where a sequence is constructed by inserting jobs one by one in a partial sequence. The most promising insertions tested are kept in a list. However, in contrast to the Tabu search, these insertions are repeated in future iterations instead of forbidding them. Secondly, we propose two constructive heuristics based on Johnson’s algorithm for the permutation flowshop scheduling problem. The computational results carried out on an extensive testbed show that the new proposals outperform the existing heuristics.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación DPI2016-80750-

Happiness on Tap: Piped Water Adoption in Urban Morocco

We study the demand for household water connections in urban Morocco, and the effect of such connections on household welfare. In the northern city of Tangiers, among homeowners without a private connection to the city’s water grid, a random subset was offered a simplified procedure to purchase a household connection on credit (at a zero percent interest rate). Take-up was high, at 69%. Because all households in our sample had access to the water grid through free public taps (often located fairly close to their homes), household connections did not lead to any improvement in the quality of the water households consumed; and despite significant increase in the quantity of water consumed, we find no change in the incidence of waterborne illnesses. Nevertheless, we find that households are willing to pay a substantial amount of money to have a private tap at home. Being connected generates important time gains, which are used for leisure and social activities, rather than productive activities. Because water is often a source of tension between households, household connections improve social integration and reduce conflict. Overall, within 6 months, self-reported well-being improved substantially among households in the treatment group, despite the financial cost of the connection. Our results suggest that facilitating access to credit for households to finance lump sum quality-of-life investments can significantly increase welfare, even if those investments do not result in income or health gains.

Values and ICTs in Educational Institutions

La irrupción creciente y acelerada de las tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones (TICs) en los ámbitos educativos de todos los niveles en el mundo actual, demandan un estudio responsable y acucioso de los efectos que tienen y pueden tener a futuro en la formación de los educandos. Su utilización, con un elevado sentido ético, es una importante tarea que deben enfrentar los responsables de las instituciones educativas, por lo que es imperioso promover modelos de gestión para las mismas que incorporen valores trascendentes como ejes centrales para su utilización. En el presente artículo se analiza el impacto de las TICs y la formación en valores como tarea impostergable en los procesos educativos contemporáneos y se señala la importancia de la utilización de modelos de toma de decisiones y de gestión que contemplan los valores como guías para su concepción y aplicación en las instituciones educativas contemporáneas.The increasing and intensive irruption of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in the educational ambiences in all levels in the modern world demands a responsible and urgent study of the effects that they have and may have in the formation of the students in the future. Their use, with a high ethical sense, is an important task that people in charge of educational institutions must face. For this reason, it is imperious to promote models of management that incorporate transcendent values as essential parts of their use. The present article analyzed the impact of the ICTs and the formation of values as an urgent task in the educational contemporary processes, and it distinguishes the importance of the use of models of decisions and management that contemplate the values as guides for their conception and application in the educational contemporary institutions

Góngora y la poesía culterana

Las Soledades, cima del movimiento culterano fueron definidas por Lope de Vega con palabras contundentes: "colores y ruido". La precisión del poeta madrileño debe de entenderse referida a muchos de los continuadores de Góngora que colocaron en primer término la rebuscada imaginería barroca y el alarde erudito, pensando "llegar a su ingenio por imitar su estilo". Es, también, frase de Lope