Segmentation of Speech and Humming in Vocal Input

Non-verbal vocal interaction (NVVI) is an interaction method in which sounds other than speech produced by a human are used, such as humming. NVVI complements traditional speech recognition systems with continuous control. In order to combine the two approaches (e.g. "volume up, mmm") it is necessary to perform a speech/NVVI segmentation of the input sound signal. This paper presents two novel methods of speech and humming segmentation. The first method is based on classification of MFCC and RMS parameters using a neural network (MFCC method), while the other method computes volume changes in the signal (IAC method). The two methods are compared using a corpus collected from 13 speakers. The results indicate that the MFCC method outperforms IAC in terms of accuracy, precision, and recall

A serious games platform for cognitive rehabilitation with preliminary evaluation

In recent years Serious Games have evolved substantially, solving problems in diverse areas. In particular, in Cognitive Rehabilitation, Serious Games assume a relevant role. Traditional cognitive therapies are often considered repetitive and discouraging for patients and Serious Games can be used to create more dynamic rehabilitation processes, holding patients' attention throughout the process and motivating them during their road to recovery. This paper reviews Serious Games and user interfaces in rehabilitation area and details a Serious Games platform for Cognitive Rehabilitation that includes a set of features such as: natural and multimodal user interfaces and social features (competition, collaboration, and handicapping) which can contribute to augment the motivation of patients during the rehabilitation process. The web platform was tested with healthy subjects. Results of this preliminary evaluation show the motivation and the interest of the participants by playing the games.- This work has been supported by FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia in the scope of the projects: PEst-UID/CEC/00319/2015 and PEst-UID/CEC/00027/2015. The authors would like to thank also all the volunteers that participated in the study

Seasonal ecosystem variability in remote mountain lakes: implications for detecting climatic signals in sediment records.

22 páginas, 12 figuras, 20 tablas.Weather variation and climate fluctuations are the main sources of ecosystem variability in remote mountain lakes. Here we describe the main patterns of seasonal variability in the ecosystems of nine lakes in Europe, and discuss the implications for recording climatic features in their sediments. Despite the diversity in latitude and size, the lakes showed a number of common features. They were ice-covered between 5–9 months, and all but one were dimictic. This particular lake was long and shallow, and wind action episodically mixed the water column throughout the ice-free period. All lakes showed characteristic oxygen depletion during the ice-covered-period, which was greater in the most productive lakes. Two types of lakes were distinguished according to the number of production peaks during the ice-free season. Lakes with longer summer stratification tended to have two productive periods: one at the onset of stratification, and the other during the autumn overturn. Lakes with shorter stratification had a single peak during the ice-free period. All lakes presented deep chlorophyll maxima during summer stratification, and subsurface chlorophyll maxima beneath the ice. Phosphorus limitation was common to all lakes, since nitrogen compounds were significantly more abundant than the requirements for the primary production observed. The major chemical components present in the lakes showed a short but extreme dilution during thawing. Certain lake features may favour the recording of particular climatic fluctuations, for instance: lakes with two distinct productive periods, climatic fluctuations in spring or autumn (e.g., through chrysophycean cysts); lakes with higher oxygen consumption, climatic factors affecting the duration of the ice-cover (e.g., through low-oxygen tolerant chironomids); lakes with higher water retention time; changes in atmospheric deposition (e.g., through carbon or pigment burial); lakes with longer stratification, air temperature changes during summer and autumn (e.g., through all epilimnetic species).This study was supported by the European Commission, Environment and Climate Programme, contract ENV4 CT95 0007 (MOLAR) and by the Swiss Federal Office of Education and Science (grant no. 95.0518-1).Peer reviewe

Seasonal ecosystem variability in remote mountain lakes. Implications for detecting climatic signals in sediment records.

22 páginas, 12 figuras, 20 tablas.Weather variation and climate fluctuations are the main sources of ecosystem variability in remote mountain lakes. Here we describe the main patterns of seasonal variability in the ecosystems of nine lakes in Europe, and discuss the implications for recording climatic features in their sediments. Despite the diversity in latitude and size, the lakes showed a number of common features. They were ice-covered between 5–9 months, and all but one were dimictic. This particular lake was long and shallow, and wind action episodically mixed the water column throughout the ice-free period. All lakes showed characteristic oxygen depletion during the ice-covered-period, which was greater in the most productive lakes. Two types of lakes were distinguished according to the number of production peaks during the ice-free season. Lakes with longer summer stratification tended to have two productive periods: one at the onset of stratification, and the other during the autumn overturn. Lakes with shorter stratification had a single peak during the ice-free period. All lakes presented deep chlorophyll maxima during summer stratification, and subsurface chlorophyll maxima beneath the ice. Phosphorus limitation was common to all lakes, since nitrogen compounds were significantly more abundant than the requirements for the primary production observed. The major chemical components present in the lakes showed a short but extreme dilution during thawing. Certain lake features may favour the recording of particular climatic fluctuations, for instance: lakes with two distinct productive periods, climatic fluctuations in spring or autumn (e.g., through chrysophycean cysts); lakes with higher oxygen consumption, climatic factors affecting the duration of the ice-cover (e.g., through low-oxygen tolerant chironomids); lakes with higher water retention time; changes in atmospheric deposition (e.g., through carbon or pigment burial); lakes with longer stratification, air temperature changes during summer and autumn (e.g., through all epilimnetic species).This study was supported by the European Commission, Environment and Climate Programme, contract ENV4 CT95 0007 (MOLAR) and by the Swiss Federal Office of Education and Science (grant no. 95.0518-1).Peer reviewe