Phonetic transcription in automatic speech recognition

This paper discusses automatic phonetic transcription to be applied in Hungarian speech recognition. It first deals with the basic technologies of automatic speech recognition (ASR) for the sake of readers not familiar with this scientific field, then it discusses the place of (automatic) phonetic transcription in ASR. After that, our method developed for transcribing Hungarian texts automatically is introduced. This technique is an extension of the traditional linear transcription approach; its output is called 'optioned' because it contains pronunciation options in parallel arcs. We present our experiences with promising improvements in recogniser training efficiency. The achievements are due to the application of deeper linguistic (phonological) knowledge. With the training technique developed not only the quality of the acoustic models can be enhanced, but also, at the same time, the amount of the required manual work can effectively be decreased

Monitoring and Controlling Energy-positive Public Lighting: the E+grid System

The concepts of smart cities and self-sustaining renewable energy systems are revolutionizing the world of public lighting. This paper presents the architecture of a novel, adaptive and energy-positive outdoor lighting system, as well as the IT solutions that control and monitor the operation of the whole system

Application of pulsed laser ablation (pLA) for the size reduction of non‑steroidal anti‑inflammatory drugs (nSAiDs)

We studied the application of pulsed laser ablation (pLA) for particle size reduction in non‑steroidal anti‑inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Grinding of the poorly water‑soluble NSAID crystallites can considerably increase their solubility and bioavailability, thereby the necessary doses can be reduced significantly. We used tablets of ibuprofen, niflumic acid and meloxicam as targets. Nanosecond laser pulses were applied at various wavelengths (KrF excimer laser, λ=248 nm, FWHM=18 ns and Nd:YAG laser, λ1=532 nm/λ2=1064 nm, FWHM=6 ns) and at various fluences. FTIR and Raman spectra showed that the chemical compositions of the drugs had not changed during ablation at 532 nm and 1064 nm laser wavelengths.The size distribution of the ablated products was established using two types of particle size analyzers (SMPS and OPC) having complementary measuring ranges.The mean size of the drug crystallites decreased from the initial 30–80 µm to the submicron to nanometer range. For a better understanding of the ablation mechanism we made several investigations (SEM, Ellipsometry, Fast photography) and some model calculations. We have established that PLA offers a chemical‑free and simple method for the size reduction of poorly water‑soluble drugs and a possible new way for pharmaceutical drug preformulation for nasal administration

Selection of Collision Energies in Proteomics Mass Spectrometry Experiments for Best Peptide Identification: Study of Mascot Score Energy Dependence Reveals Double Optimum

International audienceCollision energy is a key parameter determining the information content of beam-type collision induced dissociation tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) spectra, and its optimal choice largely affects successful peptide and protein identification in MS-based proteomics. For an MS/MS spectrum, quality of peptide match based on sequence database search, often characterized in terms of a single score, is a complex function of spectrum characteristics, and its collision energy dependence has remained largely unexplored. We carried out electrospray ionization-quadrupole-time of flight (ESI-Q-TOF)-MS/MS measurements on 2807 peptides from tryptic digests of HeLa and E. coli at 21 different collision energies. Agglomerative clustering of the resulting Mascot score versus energy curves revealed that only few of them display a single, well-defined maximum; rather, they feature either a broad plateau or two clear peaks. Nonlinear least-squares fitting of one or two Gaussian functions allowed the characteristic energies to be determined. We found that the double peaks and the plateaus in Mascot score can be associated with the different energy dependence of b- and y-type fragment ion intensities. We determined that the energies for optimum Mascot scores follow separate linear trends for the unimodal and bimodal cases with rather large residual variance even after differences in proton mobility are taken into account. This leaves room for experiment optimization and points to the possible influence of further factors beyond m/z