Adversarially Trained Autoencoders for Parallel-Data-Free Voice Conversion

We present a method for converting the voices between a set of speakers. Our method is based on training multiple autoencoder paths, where there is a single speaker-independent encoder and multiple speaker-dependent decoders. The autoencoders are trained with an addition of an adversarial loss which is provided by an auxiliary classifier in order to guide the output of the encoder to be speaker independent. The training of the model is unsupervised in the sense that it does not require collecting the same utterances from the speakers nor does it require time aligning over phonemes. Due to the use of a single encoder, our method can generalize to converting the voice of out-of-training speakers to speakers in the training dataset. We present subjective tests corroborating the performance of our method

Synthetic perspective optical flow: Influence on pilot control tasks

One approach used to better understand the impact of visual flow on control tasks has been to use synthetic perspective flow patterns. Such patterns are the result of apparent motion across a grid or random dot display. Unfortunately, the optical flow so generated is based on a subset of the flow information that exists in the real world. The danger is that the resulting optical motions may not generate the visual flow patterns useful for actual flight control. Researchers conducted a series of studies directed at understanding the characteristics of synthetic perspective flow that support various pilot tasks. In the first of these, they examined the control of altitude over various perspective grid textures (Johnson et al., 1987). Another set of studies was directed at studying the head tracking of targets moving in a 3-D coordinate system. These studies, parametric in nature, utilized both impoverished and complex virtual worlds represented by simple perspective grids at one extreme, and computer-generated terrain at the other. These studies are part of an applied visual research program directed at understanding the design principles required for the development of instruments displaying spatial orientation information. The experiments also highlight the need for modeling the impact of spatial displays on pilot control tasks

LIQUISOLID COMPACTS: AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH FOR DISSOLUTION ENHANCEMENT

The challenge faced by the majority of the pharmaceutical products is the poor solubility of the drug candidates which leads to low bioavailability. Liquisolid compact is one of the emerging techniques that enhances the dissolution of poorly water soluble drugs. Liquisolid system mentions to the formulation made by the transforming the liquid drug, either in the form of suspension or solution in non volatile solvents into a dry, non-sticky, free-flowing and compactable powder mixtures. This is achieved by mixing the suspension or solution of the drug with appropriate carriers and coating agents. The technology has the ability to increase aqueous solubility, rate of dissolution and absorption of poorly soluble drug by keeping it in molecularly dispersed form leading to its improved bioavailability when compared to conventional tablets. Liquisolid technology is the impending approach for enhancing the solubility of poorly water-soluble drug by adopting simple manufacturing process and low production cost

Travails of New Mothers Returning to Work in Corporate India: A Phenomenological Study

A woman’s life is a myriad of experiences and none, perhaps, leaves a more lasting impression on her than motherhood. The child-birth event along with all its highs and lows not only has a deep psychological impact on her as a person but also impacts her career in many ways. Using interpretive phenomenological analysis, we have studied the lived experience of women who returned to work in corporate settings after maternity leave. Our study found that not only do they go through an emotional upheaval during this phase, but they also see a marked shift in the way they approach their careers. A woman’s natural instinct to mother her child comes in conflict with another natural (and equally important) desire to succeed in the workplace. Most women in our study experienced a stalling/break in their careers after childbirth and wished they had a mentor to assist them in transitioning back to office life. Besides trying to evaluate if childbirth was perceived as a threat or potential impediment to a high-flying career, we also explored how women were treated in their work environments, and whether their coworkers helped the women to cope during this phase. While the women in our study wanted to achieve success and satisfaction both within their families and careers, they found it most challenging to do so

One qubit almost completely reveals the dynamics of two

From the time dependence of states of one of them, the dynamics of two interacting qubits is determined to be one of two possibilities that differ only by a change of signs of parameters in the Hamiltonian. The only exception is a simple particular case where several parameters in the Hamiltonian are zero and one of the remaining nonzero parameters has no effect on the time dependence of states of the one qubit. The mean values that describe the initial state of the other qubit and of the correlations between the two qubits also are generally determined to within a change of signs by the time dependence of states of the one qubit, but with many more exceptions. An example demonstrates all the results. Feedback in the equations of motion that allows time dependence in a subsystem to determine the dynamics of the larger system can occur in both classical and quantum mechanics. The role of quantum mechanics here is just to identify qubits as the simplest objects to consider and specify the form that equations of motion for two interacting qubits can take.Comment: 6 pages with new and updated materia

Energy Efficiency and Network Lifetime Maximization in Wireless Sensor Networks Using Improved Ant Colony Optimization

AbstractImproving network lifetime is the fundamental challenge of wireless sensor networks. One possible solution consists in making use of mobile sinks. Sink mobility along a constrained path can improve the energy efficiency in wireless sensor networks. However, due to the path constraint, a mobile sink with constant speed has limited communication time to collect data from the sensor nodes deployed randomly. This poses significant challenges in jointly improving the amount of data collected and reducing the energy consumption. This paper proposes a data collection scheme, called the Maximum Amount Shortest Path (MASP), to address this issue that increases network throughput as well as conserves energy by optimizing the assignment of sensor nodes.MASP is formulated as an integer linear programming problem and then solved with the help of improved ant colony optimization. The residual energy of each node is calculated and the optimal path is selected by considering the shortest path, residual energy, channel noise, and delay. This approach is validated through simulation experiments using NS