Regularized Optimal Transport and the Rot Mover's Distance

This paper presents a unified framework for smooth convex regularization of discrete optimal transport problems. In this context, the regularized optimal transport turns out to be equivalent to a matrix nearness problem with respect to Bregman divergences. Our framework thus naturally generalizes a previously proposed regularization based on the Boltzmann-Shannon entropy related to the Kullback-Leibler divergence, and solved with the Sinkhorn-Knopp algorithm. We call the regularized optimal transport distance the rot mover's distance in reference to the classical earth mover's distance. We develop two generic schemes that we respectively call the alternate scaling algorithm and the non-negative alternate scaling algorithm, to compute efficiently the regularized optimal plans depending on whether the domain of the regularizer lies within the non-negative orthant or not. These schemes are based on Dykstra's algorithm with alternate Bregman projections, and further exploit the Newton-Raphson method when applied to separable divergences. We enhance the separable case with a sparse extension to deal with high data dimensions. We also instantiate our proposed framework and discuss the inherent specificities for well-known regularizers and statistical divergences in the machine learning and information geometry communities. Finally, we demonstrate the merits of our methods with experiments using synthetic data to illustrate the effect of different regularizers and penalties on the solutions, as well as real-world data for a pattern recognition application to audio scene classification

Achieving Access to Justice in a Business and Human Rights Context

Achieving Access to Justice in a Business and Human Rights Context explores the interplay between access to justice and business and human rights- a growing area of international human rights law- in European civil-law countries. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) can contribute to economic prosperity and social development in the countries where they operate. At the same time, their activities may directly or indirectly cause harm to humans and to the environment. However, MNEs are rarely held accountable for their involvement in human rights abuses and environmental damage. In recent years, activists have challenged corporate impunity by introducing innovative claims seeking to hold parent companies directly liable for the harm caused by their group’s activities. They have also strategically used this type of litigation to trigger corporate accountability reforms at international, regional, and national levels. Using national litigation experiences as a starting point and focusing on European civil-law countries, the book evaluates the extent to which litigation against MNEs has been effective in achieving access to justice and corporate accountability. It also considers whether ongoing regulatory developments, such as the adoption of mandatory human rights due diligence norms and the negotiations for a business and human rights treaty, can contribute to the realisation of access to justice and corporate accountability in the future

Modeling Long and Short-term prosody for language identification

International audienceThis paper addresses the problem of modeling prosody for language identification. The main goal is to validate (or invalidate) some languages characteristics proposed by the linguists by the mean of an automatic language identification (ALI) system. In previous papers, we defined a prosodic unit, the pseudo-syllable. Static modeling has proven the relevance of the pseudo-syllable unit for ALI. In this paper, we try to model the prosody dynamics. This is achieved by the separation of long-term and short-term components of prosody and the proposing of suitable models. Experiments are made on seven languages and the efficiency of the modeling is discussed

Automatic prosodic variations modelling for language and dialect discrimination

International audienceThis paper addresses the problem of modelling prosody for language identification. The aim is to create a system that can be used prior to any linguistic work to show if prosodic differences among languages or dialects can be automatically determined. In previous papers, we defined a prosodic unit, the pseudo-syllable. Rhythmic modelling has proven the relevance of the pseudo-syllable unit for automatic language identification. In this paper, we propose to model the prosodic variations, that is to say model sequences of prosodic units. This is achieved by the separation of phrase and accentual components of intonation. We propose an independent coding of those components on differentiated scales of duration. Short-term and long-term language-dependent sequences of labels are modelled by n-gram models. The performance of the system is demonstrated by experiments on read speech and evaluated by experiments on spontaneous speech. Finally, an experiment is described on the discrimination of Arabic dialects, for which there is a lack of linguistic studies, notably on prosodic comparisons. We show that our system is able to clearly identify the dialectal areas, leading to the hypothesis that those dialects have prosodic differences

Dynamic analysis of rotating fan structures by the Finite Element Method

The Finite Element Method is used to determine the fundamental mode shapes and frequencies of fan structures. The analysis is performed on five fan structures, having different geometries, under static conditions and under centrifugal forces at various angular velocities. The results of the analysis are correlated with experimental data. The Southwell Coefficient, which takes into account the effect of centrifugal stiffening/softening, is determined for each fan and used for the prediction of its dynamic response and critical speeds. The research led to a study of the influence of riveted spider-to-blade connections on the vibration response of propeller fans; This thesis also presents a mathematical transformation analysis and an explanation of a frontend computer program, to the finite element system GIFTS, which facilitates the procedure of analyzing the vibration response of propeller fans under static or operating conditions, by the Finite Element Method. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)

In search of cues discriminating West-african accents in French

International audienceThis study investigates to what extent West-African French accents can be distinguished, based on recordings made in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal. First, a perceptual experiment was conducted, suggesting that these accents are well identified by West-African listeners (especially the Senegal and Ivory Coast accents). Second, prosodic and segmental cues were studied by using speech processing methods such as automatic phoneme alignment. Results show that the Senegal accent (with a tendency toward word-initial stress followed by a falling pitch movement) and the Ivory Coast accent (with a tendency to delete/vocalise the /R/ consonant) are most distinct from standard French and among the West-African accents under investigation

Comparison of Spectral Properties of Read, Prepared and Casual Speech in French

International audienceIn this paper, we investigate the acoustic properties of phonemes in three speaking styles: read speech, prepared speech and spontaneous speech. Our aim is to better understand why speech recognition systems still fails to achieve good performances on spontaneous speech. This work follows the work of Nakamura et al. \cite{nakamura2008} on Japanese speaking styles, with the difference that we here focus on French. Using Nakamura's method, we use classical speech recognition features, MFCC, and try to represent the effects of the speaking styles on the spectral space. Two measurements are defined in order to represent the spectral space reduction and the spectral variance extension. Experiments are then carried on to investigate if indeed we find some differences between the three speaking styles using these measurements. We finally compare our results to those obtained by Nakamura on Japanese to see if the same phenomenon appears