Cepstral analysis based on the Glimpse proportion measure for improving the intelligibility of HMM-based synthetic speech in noise

In this paper we introduce a new cepstral coefficient extraction method based on an intelligibility measure for speech in noise, the Glimpse Proportion measure. This new method aims to increase the intelligibility of speech in noise by modifying the clean speech, and has applications in scenarios such as public announcement and car navigation systems. We first explain how the Glimpse Proportion measure operates and further show how we approximated it to integrate it into an existing spectral envelope parameter extraction method commonly used in the HMM-based speech synthesis framework. We then demonstrate how this new method changes the modelled spectrum according to the characteristics of the noise and show results for a listening test with vocoded and HMM-based synthetic speech. The test indicates that the proposed method can significantly improve intelligibility of synthetic speech in speech shaped noise. Index Terms — cepstral coefficient extraction, objective measure for speech intelligibility, Lombard speech, HMM-based speech synthesis 1

Identifying Training Challenges in Hospitality Industry: An Exploratory Approach

The current study investigated the effects of job satisfaction and organizational commitment on organizational citizenship behavior and turnover intentions. The study also examined the effect of organizational citizenship behavior on turnover intentions. Frontline employees working in five-star hotels in North Cyprus were selected as a sample. The result of multiple regression analyses revealed that job satisfaction is positively related to organizational citizenship behavior and negatively related to turnover intentions. Affective organizational commitment was found to be positively related to organizational citizenship behavior. However, the study found no significant relationship between organizational commitment and turnover intentions. Furthermore, organizational citizenship behavior was negatively associated with turnover intentions. The study provides discussion and avenues for future research

Beam Loading Compensation of the CTF II Drive Beam using Idle Cavities

A pair of idle cavity structures has been built at the Alfvén Laboratory, KTH, Stockholm for a second order compensation of the drive beam energy spread in the CLIC Test Facility II (CTF II) at CERN, Geneve. In this note, the theoretical background and the cavity design, together with the experimental results, are presented

Nonlinear and linear timescales near kinetic scales in solar wind turbulence

The application of linear kinetic treatments to plasma waves, damping, and instability requires favorable inequalities between the associated linear timescales and timescales for nonlinear (e.g., turbulence) evolution. In the solar wind these two types of timescales may be directly compared using standard Kolmogorov-style analysis and observational data. The estimated local (in scale) nonlinear magnetohydrodynamic cascade times, evaluated as relevant kinetic scales are approached, remain slower than the cyclotron period, but comparable to or faster than the typical timescales of instabilities, anisotropic waves, and wave damping. The variation with length scale of the turbulence timescales is supported by observations and simulations. On this basis the use of linear theory—which assumes constant parameters to calculate the associated kinetic rates—may be questioned. It is suggested that the product of proton gyrofrequency and nonlinear time at the ion gyroscales provides a simple measure of turbulence influence on proton kinetic behavior

Assessment of the risk of tuberculosis transmission for five housing prototypes designed for a Haitian community

The hospitalization of patients affected with tuberculosis (TB) can be particularly long and burdensome, especially in poor countries where the disease remains a major issue and beds in health care centres are a precious resource. Therefore a policy of decentralising TB treatment from hospitals to residential environments is starting to be considered worldwide, and new guidelines in support of such strategy are needed. This study illustrates a potential “risk assessment model” for TB transmission in dwellings that might help analysing both existing building stocks and new designs in order to apply the new policy, utilizing as a reference the general frame of risk assessment for buildings developed by civil engineering; the model was then tested on five housing prototypes proposed for the town of Saint Marc, Haiti, showing that environmental features of a building such as ventilation, crowding, temperature and relative humidity are among the most important parameters for the estimate of the risk. The final outcome of the analysis, however, highlighted how he most influential factor on the risk of spread of infectious diseases is the efficiency of the health care system operating in the building urban context

Analisis Penentuan Harga Jual Dengan Metode Variabel Costing Dan Activity Based Costing Pada PT. Massindo Sinar Pratama Industri

Setiap Perusahaan membutuhkan laba untuk tetap bertahan dan tak mudah untuk mendapatkannya. Dibutuhkan metode dan hitungan yang tepat untuk memperoleh laba tersebut. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui bagaimana peranan dalam penentuan harga jual dengan menggunakan metode harga pokok variabel dan metode ABC pada PT. Massindo Sinar Pratama Industri. Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan cara pengumpulan data secara deskriptif dan dinyatakan dalam bentuk angka. Setelah menggunakan penghitungan dengan penentuan harga pokok variabel, laba yang diharapkan bisa tercapai sedangkan harga jual per set yang lebih tinggi. Adapun harga jual per set sofa dengan menggunakan metode ABC lebih rendah dibandingkan metode variable. PT. Massindo Sinar Pratama Industri belum menetapkan harga jual yang tepat dan akurat. Cara perhitungan Perusahaan belumlah tepat, sehingga target yang diharapkan tidak terpenuhi. Karena itu, mereka sebaiknya membuat seperangkat metode penerapan harga jual yang ilmiah. Metode ABC hendaknya digunakan dalam penetapan harga jual Perusahaan karena dapat bermanfaat pada perencanaan laba, pengawasan biaya, dan pembuatan keputusan. Manajemen PT. Massindo Sinar Pratama Industri sebaiknya meningkatkan kemampuan produksi divisi sofa sehingga dapat menutupi biaya yang dikeluarkan dan memperoleh laba yang ditargetkan. Kata kunci: variable costing, activity based costing, harga jua

Order in de Broglie - Bohm quantum mechanics

A usual assumption in the so-called {\it de Broglie - Bohm} approach to quantum dynamics is that the quantum trajectories subject to typical `guiding' wavefunctions turn to be quite irregular, i.e. {\it chaotic} (in the dynamical systems' sense). In the present paper, we consider mainly cases in which the quantum trajectories are {\it ordered}, i.e. they have zero Lyapunov characteristic numbers. We use perturbative methods to establish the existence of such trajectories from a theoretical point of view, while we analyze their properties via numerical experiments. Using a 2D harmonic oscillator system, we first establish conditions under which a trajectory can be shown to avoid close encounters with a moving nodal point, thus avoiding the source of chaos in this system. We then consider series expansions for trajectories both in the interior and the exterior of the domain covered by nodal lines, probing the domain of convergence as well as how successful the series are in comparison with numerical computations or regular trajectories. We then examine a H\'{e}non - Heiles system possessing regular trajectories, thus generalizing previous results. Finally, we explore a key issue of physical interest in the context of the de Broglie - Bohm formalism, namely the influence of order in the so-called {\it quantum relaxation} effect. We show that the existence of regular trajectories poses restrictions to the quantum relaxation process, and we give examples in which the relaxation is suppressed even when we consider initial ensembles of only chaotic trajectories, provided, however, that the system as a whole is characterized by a certain degree of order.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figure

Bell's Jump Process in Discrete Time

The jump process introduced by J. S. Bell in 1986, for defining a quantum field theory without observers, presupposes that space is discrete whereas time is continuous. In this letter, our interest is to find an analogous process in discrete time. We argue that a genuine analog does not exist, but provide examples of processes in discrete time that could be used as a replacement.Comment: 7 pages LaTeX, no figure