Non-Parallel Training in Voice Conversion Using an Adaptive Restricted Boltzmann Machine

In this paper, we present a voice conversion (VC) method that does not use any parallel data while training the model. VC is a technique where only speaker-specific information in source speech is converted while keeping the phonological information unchanged. Most of the existing VC methods rely on parallel data-pairs of speech data from the source and target speakers uttering the same sentences. However, the use of parallel data in training causes several problems: 1) the data used for the training are limited to the predefined sentences, 2) the trained model is only applied to the speaker pair used in the training, and 3) mismatches in alignment may occur. Although it is, thus, fairly preferable in VC not to use parallel data, a nonparallel approach is considered difficult to learn. In our approach, we achieve nonparallel training based on a speaker adaptation technique and capturing latent phonological information. This approach assumes that speech signals are produced from a restricted Boltzmann machine-based probabilistic model, where phonological information and speaker-related information are defined explicitly. Speaker-independent and speaker-dependent parameters are simultaneously trained under speaker adaptive training. In the conversion stage, a given speech signal is decomposed into phonological and speaker-related information, the speaker-related information is replaced with that of the desired speaker, and then voice-converted speech is obtained by mixing the two. Our experimental results showed that our approach outperformed another nonparallel approach, and produced results similar to those of the popular conventional Gaussian mixture models-based method that used parallel data in subjective and objective criteria

How to promote the stockpiling of medication for disaster preparedness among Parkinson’s disease patients receiving home care services

The purpose of this study was to identify factors, using the Health Belief Model (HBM) associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD) medication stockpiling for disaster preparedness among PD patients receiving home care services. The survey was conducted through an anonymous, self-administered postal questionnaire between March and September 2013, targeting all 1,398 members of Japan Parkinson’s Disease Association in nine prefectures in East Japan including the Hokuriku region. The analysis included 571 valid responses (40.8%). The results of a binary logistic regression analysis indicated that three of the modifying factors in the HBM, “possession of a disability certificate,” “bringing a medicine notebook or information sheet when going out,” and “awareness of the possibility of a future disaster” were significantly associated with stockpiling behavior. The “Cues to Action” factor (“encouragement from others or information promoting the stockpiling of medication”) was also significantly associated. However, the other constructs in the HBM, “Susceptibility,” “Severity,” “Perceived Threat,” “Barriers,” and “Benefits,” did not show significant association. We concluded that encouragement of stockpiling behavior from healthcare professionals and the PD Association, making a habit of always bringing a medicine notebook when going out, and raising awareness of the possibility of a disaster are useful in promoting medication stockpiling among PD patients

Before-after (1998 and 2008) trend analyses on regional clustering of clinical dentist-to-population ratio in all 1,976 municipalities of Japan

Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to obtain geographic clustering information in order to identify shortages (“cold spots”) and surpluses (“hot spots”) of dentists in all municipalities of Japan. Methods: Pretreatment steps were conducted to recover the lost comparability between pre-1998 and post-2008 data due to the large-scale merging of municipalities (42.1% reduction) in the Heisei era. Moran’s I, LISA and spatial multiple regression analyses with AIC were performed to verify regional clustering. Dependent variables of the regression analyses were the clinical dentist-to-population ratio in 2008 (Model 1) and the difference between 1998 and 2008 (Model 2). Results: The R2 was 0.8379 (p<0.0001) for Model 1 and 0.5832 (p<0.0001) for Model 2. The initial dentist-to-population ratio in 1998 showed the highest significance in both models. However, the coefficient of Model 2 was negative, which was exactly the opposite of that of Model 1. Furthermore, indices relating to urbanization and hospital dentist-to-population ratio in 1998 were also highly significant (p<0.01) after adjustment for confounding factors. High- High clustered municipalities are located in most urbanized areas, whereas Low-Low clustered municipalities are located in remote areas far from urbanized areas. This study revealed that factors which attract dental clinics are urbanization and hospitals with dental care capabilities. Conclusion: Clinical dentist-topopulation ratios have improved only in municipalities in urbanized areas in the past ten years. On the contrary, accessibility of dental treatment has not improved in remote/isolated areas

Risk factors related to the reduction of subjective taste ability in middle-to old-aged nursing home residents in Sri Lanka : a cross-sectional study

The purpose of this study is to verify the factors significantly related to the reduction of subjective taste ability of 1,015 middle-aged and elderly (50 - 96 years old) at 25 randomized selected nursing homes in Sri Lanka. Binary logistic regression analyses by gender were performed using IBM SPSS on following variables. A dependent variable is taste ability, and 27 independent variables are age, daily lifestyle, nutritional problems, general status, dental status and physiological thresholds of taste abilities (sweet, salt, sour, bitter, and umami). Smell ability (p < 0.001 - 0.05) and the Self-Report Questionnaire, 20-item version :SRQ 20 (p < 0.01 - 0.05) were significant risk factors of reducing taste ability in both genders. Especially, smell ability was closely linked to taste ability. Existence of comprehensive perception of “flavor” composed of taste and smell ability was illustrated. Significant gender differences factors were observed in long term care needs (p < 0.05), sleeping (p < 0.01 - 0.001), bowel condition (p < 0.05) in males; and height (p < 0.05), weight (p < 0.05), BMI 3 categories (p < 0.05), and brushing (p < 0.05) in females. Other variables such as age and five types of physiological taste ability were not significant in both genders. The results of this investigation also strongly indicated that the perception of subjective sense of taste was different from the objective sense of taste. Epidemiological studies such as cohort or intervention studies focusing on a relationship between subjective taste ability and sense of smell are necessary to identify more accurate and changeable risk factors for dysgeusia in order to improve elderly’s nutritional intake in Sri Lanka

Association of schizophrenia onset age and white matter integrity with treatment effect of D-cycloserine : a randomized placebo-controlled double-blind crossover study

Background: It has been reported that drugs which promote the N-Methyl-D-aspartate-type glutamate receptor function by stimulating the glycine modulatory site in the receptor improve negative symptoms and cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia patients being treated with antipsychotic drugs. Methods: We performed a placebo-controlled double-blind crossover study involving 41 schizophrenia patients in which D-cycloserine 50 mg/day was added-on, and the influence of the onset age and association with white matter integrity on MR diffusion tensor imaging were investigated for the first time. The patients were evaluated using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS), Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS), and other scales. Results: D-cycloserine did not improve positive or negative symptoms or cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia. The investigation in consideration of the onset age suggests that D-cycloserine may aggravate negative symptoms of early-onset schizophrenia. The better treatment effect of D-cycloserine on BACS was observed when the white matter integrity of the sagittal stratum/ cingulum/fornix stria terminalis/genu of corpus callosum/external capsule was higher, and the better treatment effect on PANSS general psychopathology (PANSS-G) was observed when the white matter integrity of the splenium of corpus callosum was higher. In contrast, the better treatment effect of D-cycloserine on PANSS-G and SANS-IV were observed when the white matter integrity of the posterior thalamic radiation (left) was lower. Conclusion: It was suggested that response to D-cycloserine is influenced by the onset age and white matter integrity

Research on the expectations of the situation of future information technology（IT） in the medical and welfare fields and a future career and employment among students of the Department of Health Informatics

本研究は、新潟医療福祉大学医療情報管理学科学生の2014年度卒業研究の一環として行われ、2つの質問、25年後の医療福祉現場におけるIT技術の予測及び25年後の学生自身の就職・仕事に関する予測（期待）に対する無記名の自由回答を用いて同科学生の意識を調査・分析し、同科教育上の改善情報を得ることを目的とした。調査方法は全学年（1～4年生）への自記式の無記名自由記載アンケート方式で、得られた質的データを質的分析ソフト ： KH Coderを用いて分析し、合わせて量的分析も併用した。アンケート回収率は全学年で47.8％であった。25年後のITに関しては、学年を追うに従い医療やITに関連する語の増加と変化傾向がみられた。また語「診療情報管理士」の出現度が自身の未来の仕事への回答と比して低い傾向がみられた。25年後の就業について男性は女性と比べて、高い年収、社長や部長といった高い役職志向があり、一方、女性は男性が用いない「パート」という語を多数使用することがそれぞれ統計的に有意となった。このことに象徴されるように女性は男性に比べて悪く言えば夢がなく、良く言えば地に足がついた現実志向を持っていると考察された。本分析によって明らかにされた「ITの進歩を予測するものの、多くの学生が自身の未来の仕事に位置付ける診療情報管理士の業務とITとの結びつきが弱い」という現象は現行の教育上の問題点と考えられた。加えて、学生が就職先を決める際に重視するとされる幾つかの判断基準、すなわち「こだわり」のうち本科学生は資格の専門性と就業希望との関連が希薄ではないかと考察された。今後の課題として、就職に有利な資格という視点のみならず診療情報管理士は医療・福祉現場のIT化に不可欠な資格という意識の醸成を、同科教育の中で取り入れられる必要があることが示された。This study was performed as part of the 2014 fiscal year graduation work carried out by the students of the Department of Health Informatics, Niigata University of Health and Welfare. The data was collected from all grade students （1-4） using anonymous open-ended questions asking: Q1） the situation of future information technology （IT） in the medical and welfare fields after 25 years （“25 years IT”）, Q2） their future career and employment after 25 years（ “25 years JOB”）.The purpose of this study was to obtain the information contributing to the improvement of the educational system of the department through the analyses of this consciousness research.The data was analyzed using KH Coder, a free software for quantitative content analysis or text mining.The questionnaire recovery was 47.8% in all grades. For “25 years IT”, the words related to medical care or IT increased as the grade went up. For “25 years JOB”, there was desire for a high yearly income and post such as the president or the director among male students, whereas the term “part-time employment” was frequently used only by female students. These differences between genders were statistically significant and characterizes female students being more practical but less ambitious about their future than male students.The following educational problems were emerged through the analyses.a) Though many students believed in more advanced information technology in the future and considered Health Information Manager （HIM） as their future career, they did not think that HIM plays a core role in the promotion of IT in the medical or health and welfare fields.b) In addition, it was indicated that there was a lack of desire among students to utilize their specialized skill as HIM in their work.According to this study, it is considered to be necessary that the educational system of the department should foster not only a viewpoint that qualifications such as HIM should be acquired just because it gives an advantage for employment, but also, and more importantly, an awareness of the indispensability of such qualifications for the progress of IT in medical or health and welfare fields

Local-feature-map Integration Using Convolutional Neural Networks for Music Genre Classification

International audienceA map-based approach, which treats 2-dimensionalacoustic features like image processing, has recently attracted attention in music genre classification. While this is successful at extracting local music-patterns compared with other timbral-feature-based methods, the extracted features are not sufficient for music genre classification. In this paper, we focus on appropriate feature extraction and proper classification by integrating the features. For the musical feature extraction, we calculate gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) descriptors with different offsets from a short-term mel spectrogram. These feature maps are integratively classified using convolutional neural network (CNN). In our experiments, we got a large improvement of more than 10 points in the classification accuracy, compared with conventional map-based methods.Index Terms: music genre classification, music infor-mation retrieval, music feature extraction, convolutionalneural networ