A Fully Time-domain Neural Model for Subband-based Speech Synthesizer

This paper introduces a deep neural network model for subband-based speech synthesizer. The model benefits from the short bandwidth of the subband signals to reduce the complexity of the time-domain speech generator. We employed the multi-level wavelet analysis/synthesis to decompose/reconstruct the signal into subbands in time domain. Inspired from the WaveNet, a convolutional neural network (CNN) model predicts subband speech signals fully in time domain. Due to the short bandwidth of the subbands, a simple network architecture is enough to train the simple patterns of the subbands accurately. In the ground truth experiments with teacher-forcing, the subband synthesizer outperforms the fullband model significantly in terms of both subjective and objective measures. In addition, by conditioning the model on the phoneme sequence using a pronunciation dictionary, we have achieved the fully time-domain neural model for subband-based text-to-speech (TTS) synthesizer, which is nearly end-to-end. The generated speech of the subband TTS shows comparable quality as the fullband one with a slighter network architecture for each subband.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figur

Relaciones entre el Estilo de aprendizaje perceptual, el Ideal de uno mismo en L2 y el Comportamiento motivado en L2 en estudiantes universitarios de idiomas

The study investigated the effects of 283 college students’ perceptual learning styles, imagination, and the ideal L2 self on their motivated L2 behavior. The college students were found to prefer a visual learning style the most, followed by auditory and kinesthetic styles. Statistical analyses indicated that visual and auditory styles were meaningfully correlated with motivated behavior, while the kinesthetic style was not; this was consistent with the findings of younger students. Sequential regression analysis found that the ideal L2 self had the most explanatory power, followed by imagination, auditory style, and visual style. No statistically significant difference was found between male and female students in the perceptual learning style variables.El estudio investigó los efectos que tienen los estilos de aprendizaje perceptuales, la imaginación y el ideal de uno mismo en L2 sobre el comportamiento motivado en L2 de 283 estudiantes universitarios. Los estudiantes prefieren mayoritariamente un estilo de aprendizaje visual, seguido por estilos auditivos y quinestésicos. Los análisis estadísticos indican que los estilos visuales y auditivos estaban significativamente relacionados con el comportamiento motivado, mientras que el estilo quinestésico no; esto fue similar a los resultados de estudiantes más jóvenes. El análisis de regresión secuencial reveló que el ideal de uno mismo en L2 tuvo el poder más explicativo, seguido por la imaginación, el estilo auditivo y el estilo visual. La diferencia de género no fue encontrada dentro de las variables

Effect of diabetes index on periodontal disease in Korean adults

Background: It is known that diabetes can cause complications in various organs and affect oral health. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between oral health and diabetes mellitus among Korean adults. Materials and methods: The study was conducted by the National Institute of Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2015), produced by the Korea Centers for Disease Prevention and Control. A total of 4,780 patients took part in the survey of which 554 were diabetic patients. Descriptive statistics were used to identify the periodontal disease status of non-diabetics and people with diabetes mellitus, and multiple regression analysis was performed to analyze the effect of diabetes index on periodontal disease status. Results: Normal people showed better periodontal disease and oral care status than diabetic patients. However, all three diabetic factors (glycated hemoglobin, fasting blood sugar, insulin) had no statistically significant influence on periodontal disease. Conclusions: The increase in the diabetic index may have a negative effect on various periodontal diseases, which may ultimately lead to poor oral hygiene and cause disease. Therefore, diverse studies on the diabetic index and periodontal disease are needed, and it is necessary to address the dental hygiene health of Korean adults through early education and campaigns to improve oral health. [Ethiop.J. Health Dev. 2020;34(Special issue-3):78-83] Keywords: Diabetes index, periodontal disease, oral health, Korean adult