AN EFFICIENT SPEECH GENERATIVE MODEL BASED ON DETERMINISTIC/STOCHASTIC SEPARATION OF SPECTRAL ENVELOPES

The paper presents a speech generative model that provides an efficient way of generating speech waveform from its amplitude spectral envelopes. The model is based on hybrid speech representation that includes deterministic (harmonic) and stochastic (noise) components. The main idea behind the approach originates from the fact that speech signal has a determined spectral structure that is statistically bound with deterministic/stochastic energy distribution in the spectrum. The performance of the model is evaluated using an experimental low-bitrate wide-band speech coder. The quality of reconstructed speech is evaluated using objective and subjective methods. Two objective quality characteristics were calculated: Modified Bark Spectral Distortion (MBSD) and Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ). Narrow-band and wide-band versions of the proposed solution were compared with MELP (Mixed Excitation Linear Prediction) speech coder and AMR (Adaptive Multi-Rate) speech coder, respectively. The speech base of two female and two male speakers were used for testing. The performed tests show that overall performance of the proposed approach is speaker-dependent and it is better for male voices. Supposedly, this difference indicates the influence of pitch highness on separation accuracy. In that way, using the proposed approach in experimental speech compression system provides decent MBSD values and comparable PESQ values with AMR speech coder at 6,6 kbit/s. Additional subjective listening testsdemonstrate that the implemented coding system retains phonetic content and speaker’s identity. It proves consistency of the proposed approach.The paper presents a speech generative model that provides an efficient way of generating speech waveform from its amplitude spectral envelopes. The model is based on hybrid speech representation that includes deterministic (harmonic) and stochastic (noise) components. The main idea behind the approach originates from the fact that speech signal has a determined spectral structure that is statistically bound with deterministic/stochastic energy distribution in the spectrum. The performance of the model is evaluated using an experimental low-bitrate wide-band speech coder. The quality of reconstructed speech is evaluated using objective and subjective methods. Two objective quality characteristics were calculated: Modified Bark Spectral Distortion (MBSD) and Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ). Narrow-band and wide-band versions of the proposed solution were compared with MELP (Mixed Excitation Linear Prediction) speech coder and AMR (Adaptive Multi-Rate) speech coder, respectively. The speech base of two female and two male speakers were used for testing. The performed tests show that overall performance of the proposed approach is speaker-dependent and it is better for male voices. Supposedly, this difference indicates the influence of pitch highness on separation accuracy. In that way, using the proposed approach in experimental speech compression system provides decent MBSD values and comparable PESQ values with AMR speech coder at 6,6 kbit/s. Additional subjective listening testsdemonstrate that the implemented coding system retains phonetic content and speaker’s identity. It proves consistency of the proposed approach

Congruence of intranasal aerodynamics and functional heterogeneity of olfactory epithelium

Zonal organization of the olfactory system is determined not only by peculiarities of the expression of olfactory receptor genes but also by the geometry of nasal passage, where receptors to the most muco-soluble compounds are concentrated in the area with the maximal rate of air flow (dorsal part), while receptors to less volatile compounds are concentrated in ventral part of the nose. An increase in the flow rate in certain areas of nasal cavity, on the one hand, allows acceleration of the perception of odor stimuli by olfactory receptors and, on the other hand, increases the risk of the effect of different pathogens (contained in the air) on this area due to the larger intensity of their precipitation. In this study, we demonstrated by means of manganese- enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that a more intensive capture of insoluble particles occurs in ventral part of mouse olfactory epithelium than in dorsal part during intranasal introduction of the colloid solution of manganese oxide nanoparticles (MON, Mn3O4). The joint introduction of MON and specific blockers of cellular transport and endocytosis demonstrated that the particles are captured from the nasal cavity by means of endocytosis and are transported in olfactory bulb cells by means of intracellular transport. The clathrin-dependent type of endocytosis mainly contributes to the capture of MON in the dorsal part of the olfactory epithelium (as opposed to ventral). Thus, it was established that two functional regions of mouse olfactory epithelium differing in the intensities of precipitation of submicron aerosols demonstrate different intensities of the capture of insoluble particles from the nasal cavity and have differences in the mechanisms of their endocytosis. Consequently, the structural and functional organization of mouse nasal cavity completely meets the principle of adaptive congruence, which limits infectious and toxic effects of nanoaerosols on the olfactory epithelium cells and the brain

RISC-V hardware modification for M-sequences generation

A hardware modification of the soft processor core of the open RISC-V architecture to accelerate the generation of M-sequences is being considered. The results of a comparative analysis of the performance of completely software algorithms and an algorithm with support for hardware modification are shown, and the hardware costs for implementation in a Xilinx-7 FPGA chip are calculated

Cytokine-related genes identified from the RIKEN full-length mouse cDNA data set

To identify novel cytokine-related genes, we searched the set of 60,770 annotated RIKEN mouse cDNA clones (FANTOM2 clones), using keywords such as cytokine itself or cytokine names (such as interferon, interleukin, epidermal growth factor, fibroblast growth factor, and transforming growth factor). This search produced 108 known cytokines and cytokine-related products such as cytokine receptors, cytokine-associated genes, or their products (enhancers, accessory proteins, cytokine-induced genes). We found 15 clusters of FANTOM2 clones that are candidates for novel cytokine-related genes. These encoded products with strong sequence similarity to guanylate-binding protein (GBP-5), interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 2 (IRAK-2), interleukin 20 receptor alpha isoform 3, a member of the interferon-inducible proteins of the Ifi 200 cluster, four members of the membrane-associated family 1-8 of interferon-inducible proteins, one p27-like protein, and a hypothetical protein containing a Toll/Interleukin receptor domain. All four clones representing novel candidates of gene products from the family contain a novel highly conserved cross-species domain. Clones similar to growth factor-related products included transforming growth factor beta-inducible early growth response protein 2 (TIEG-2), TGFbeta-induced factor 2, integrin beta-like 1, latent TGF-binding protein 4S, and FGF receptor 4B. We performed a detailed sequence analysis of the candidate novel genes to elucidate their likely functional properties

Highly Plasma Etch-Resistant Photoresist Composition Containing a Photosensitive Polymeric Titania Precursor

A composition is derived from an addition polymerizable organotitanium polymer which upon exposure to an oxygen plasma or baking in air, is converted to titanium dioxide (titania) or is converted to a mixed, titanium-containing metal oxide. The metal oxide formed in situ imparts etch- resistant action to a patterned photoresist layer. The composition may also be directly deposited and patterned into permanent metal oxide device features by a photolithographic process

Peculiarities of Pregnancy in Women with Different Body Mass

The aim of the study is to identify the characteristics of pregnancy in women with different body mass before pregnancy on the background of extragenital diseases and to establish the risk groups to reduce the perinatal losses. Material and methods. Observations were conducted in the Odessa City Hospital № 5 specialized in preterm labour. We studied the cases of 134 pregnant women with burdened obstetric history on the background of anemia Stage I–II. There were women with the cardiovascular system disorders, pre-eclampsia. The average age of the surveyed women was 28.35.2 years old. The statistical data were collected using SPSS program. Results and discussion. Our study confirmed that the women who were overweight had by 12 % higher risk of occurrence of mild pre-eclampsia. In accordance with our research, one third of the women (32 %) were overweight hereditary, 14.9 % of the women had lack of body mass, which demonstrated high correlation with anemia during pregnancy. The overweight women as well as the women with lacking body mass form certain groups of risk. In the overweight women, mostly preeclampsia occurs, whereas the lack of body mass mostly causes such complications as anemia of I and II degrees. Conclusions. The identification and establishment of the risk groups among the overweight and underweight women is an appropriate method of prevention of the perinatal complications and losses

Global solutions of a free boundary problem for selfgravitating scalar fields

The weak cosmic censorship hypothesis can be understood as a statement that there exists a global Cauchy evolution of a selfgravitating system outside an event horizon. The resulting Cauchy problem has a free null-like inner boundary. We study a selfgravitating spherically symmetric nonlinear scalar field. We show the global existence of a spacetime with a null inner boundary that initially is located outside the Schwarzschild radius or, more generally, outside an apparent horizon. The global existence of a patch of a spacetime that is exterior to an event horizon is obtained as a limiting case.Comment: 31 pages, revtex, to appear in the Classical and Quantum Gravit

Null Energy Condition Violation and Classical Stability in the Bianchi I Metric

The stability of isotropic cosmological solutions in the Bianchi I model is considered. We prove that the stability of isotropic solutions in the Bianchi I metric for a positive Hubble parameter follows from their stability in the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker metric. This result is applied to models inspired by string field theory, which violate the null energy condition. Examples of stable isotropic solutions are presented. We also consider the k-essence model and analyse the stability of solutions of the form $\Phi(t)=t$.Comment: 27 pages, references added, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

СИСТЕМА ИДЕНТИФКАЦИИ ДИКТОРА В АКУСТИЧЕСКИХ ШУМАХ НА ОСНОВЕ АНТРОПОМОРФИЧЕСКОЙ ОБРАБОТКИ РЕЧЕВОГО СИГНАЛА

The speaker recognition system in acoustic noises with the use of anthropomorphic speech signal processing is considered. A transform based on the cochlear model and its applications for speaker recognition are described in details. The characteristic vector obtained on the basis of this transform used as features for speaker identification. Neural network of direct distribution as decision rules are used. The results of the developed recognition systems of speaker identification are given.Рассматривается система идентификации диктора в акустических шумах с использованием антропоморфической обработки речевого сигнала. Подробно описывается преобразование речевого сигнала на основе кохлеарной модели и его применение в задаче распознавания диктора. Полученный характеристический вектор на базе данного преобразования используется в качестве признаков для системы идентификации диктора. В качестве решающих правил применяются нейронные сети прямого распространения. Приводятся результаты распознавания разработанной системы идентификации диктора

The chemistry and sources of fructose and their effect on its utility and health implications

Fructose is a significant component in unprocessed food and has become one of the most commonly sweeteners used in food manufacturing. Fructose is also a useful pharmaceutical excipient and derivatives of fructose are exploited as renewable chemical building blocks. Fructose based polysaccharides have extensive pharmaceutical and dietary functions. We discuss here the chemistry and physical behaviours of this saccharide and how these factors affect the utility and health implications of fructose