Unsupervised intralingual and cross-lingual speaker adaptation for HMM-based speech synthesis using two-pass decision tree construction

Hidden Markov model (HMM)-based speech synthesis systems possess several advantages over concatenative synthesis systems. One such advantage is the relative ease with which HMM-based systems are adapted to speakers not present in the training dataset. Speaker adaptation methods used in the field of HMM-based automatic speech recognition (ASR) are adopted for this task. In the case of unsupervised speaker adaptation, previous work has used a supplementary set of acoustic models to estimate the transcription of the adaptation data. This paper firstly presents an approach to the unsupervised speaker adaptation task for HMM-based speech synthesis models which avoids the need for such supplementary acoustic models. This is achieved by defining a mapping between HMM-based synthesis models and ASR-style models, via a two-pass decision tree construction process. Secondly, it is shown that this mapping also enables unsupervised adaptation of HMM-based speech synthesis models without the need to perform linguistic analysis of the estimated transcription of the adaptation data. Thirdly, this paper demonstrates how this technique lends itself to the task of unsupervised cross-lingual adaptation of HMM-based speech synthesis models, and explains the advantages of such an approach. Finally, listener evaluations reveal that the proposed unsupervised adaptation methods deliver performance approaching that of supervised adaptation

Able-bodied wild chimpanzees imitate a motor procedure used by a disabled individual to overcome handicap

Fieldwork of CH was generously supported by grants from the Wenner-Gren Foundation (http://wennergren.org) and the Russell Trust. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Chimpanzee culture has generated intense recent interest, fueled by the technical complexity of chimpanzee tool-using traditions; yet it is seriously doubted whether chimpanzees are able to learn motor procedures by imitation under natural conditions. Here we take advantage of an unusual chimpanzee population as a 'natural experiment' to identify evidence for imitative learning of this kind in wild chimpanzees. The Sonso chimpanzee community has suffered from high levels of snare injury and now has several manually disabled members. Adult male Tinka, with near-total paralysis of both hands, compensates inability to scratch his back manually by employing a distinctive technique of holding a growing liana taut while making side-to-side body movements against it. We found that seven able-bodied young chimpanzees also used this 'liana-scratch' technique, although they had no need to. The distribution of the liana-scratch technique was statistically associated with individuals' range overlap with Tinka and the extent of time they spent in parties with him, confirming that the technique is acquired by social learning. The motivation for able-bodied chimpanzees copying his variant is unknown, but the fact that they do is evidence that the imitative learning of motor procedures from others is a natural trait of wild chimpanzees.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

African elephants can use human pointing cues to find hidden food

We thank the School of Psychology and Neuroscience of the University of St Andrews for providing the funding for this research.How animals gain information from attending to the behavior of others has been widely studied, driven partly by the importance of referential pointing in human cognitive development [1, 2, 3 and 4], but species differences in reading human social cues remain unexplained. One explanation is that this capacity evolved during domestication [5 and 6], but it may be that only those animals able to interpret human-like social cues were successfully domesticated. Elephants are a critical taxon for this question: despite their longstanding use by humans, they have never been domesticated [7]. Here we show that a group of 11 captive African elephants, seven of them significantly as individuals, could interpret human pointing to find hidden food. We suggest that success was not due to prior training or extensive learning opportunities. Elephants successfully interpreted pointing when the experimenter’s proximity to the hiding place was varied and when the ostensive pointing gesture was visually subtle, suggesting that they understood the experimenter’s communicative intent. The elephant’s native ability in interpreting social cues may have contributed to its long history of effective use by man.PostprintPeer reviewe

Elephant cognition in primate perspective

On many of the staple measures of comparative psychology, elephants show no obvious differences from other mammals, such as primates: discrimination learning, memory, spontaneous tool use, etc. However, a range of more naturalistic measures have recently suggested that elephant cognition may be rather different. Wild elephants sub-categorize humans into groups, independently making this classification on the basis of scent or colour. In number discrimination, elephants show no effects of absolute magnitude or relative size disparity in making number judgements. In the social realm, elephants show empathy into the problems faced by others, and give hints of special abilities in cooperation, vocal imitation and perhaps teaching. Field data suggest that the elephant’s vaunted reputation for memory may have a factual basis, in two ways. Elephants’ ability to remember large-scale space over long periods suggests good cognitive mapping skills. Elephants’ skill in keeping track of the current locations of many family members implies that working memory may be unusually developed, consistent with the laboratory finding that their quantity judgements do not show the usual magnitude effects.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Wm. Matthew Byrne, Jr. to Senator James O. Eastland, 13 July 1970

Typed letter signed dated 13 July 1970 from Wm. Matthew Byrne, Jr., Executive Director of President?s Commission on Campus Unrest, to Eastland, re: public hearings of commission. Attached: copy typed manuscript entitled Witness Schedule Room 1202 New Senate Office Building.https://egrove.olemiss.edu/joecorr_f/1000/thumbnail.jp

Relationship of the thyroid gland and calcium metabolism in the bovine

Two groups of experiments were conducted to investigate the rela-tionship of the thyroid gland and calcium metabolism in the bovine. The first group included investigations of the effects of thyroid status (calcitonin and thyroxine status) on the response of mature cattle and calves to hypercalcemia induced by intravenous infusion of calcium solutions and changes in serum calcium at parturition. Three unsupplemented athyroid cattle cleared infused calcium from the blood more slowly than three controls. However, five thyroid-damaged cows fed iodinated casein cleared excess calcium from blood as well as five controls. In the third experiment, six thyroid-damaged calves which were receiving slightly excessive thyroxine therapy cleared infused calcium from blood as well as controls. The results of these experiments indicated that thyroxine therapy restored the normal ability to counteract hypercalcemia. No defect logically attributable to calcitonin was evident. The hypercalcemic response of three thyroid-damaged calves and three controls was tested before and during thyroxine therapy to the thyroid-damaged calves. Unsupplemented thyroid-damaged calves cleared excess calcium from the blood as well as controls. When excessive thy-roxine therapy was given to the thyroid-damaged calves their ability to counteract hypercalcemia appeared to be decreased. This was attributed to increased bone calcium turnover stimulated by excess thyroxine in the supplemented calves. Two hyperthyroid control calves cleared cal-cium from blood at a slower rate than two thyroid-damaged calves. Effects of excess thyroxine on bone calcium turnover could have been re-sponsible for this occurrence. No consistent effects of thyroid status on serum phosphorus and magnesium were noted in these tests. The results did not demonstrate a major role for calcitonin in the hypercalcemic re-sponse of calves. Important effects of thyroxine could be inferred from the data. Blood samples were taken before calving, at calving, and after calv-ing in six pairs of control and thyroid-damaged cows. A significant drop in serum calcium at calving was noted in controls but not in thyroid-damaged cows. This finding was attributed to release of calcitonin at parturition in the control cows. Hypocalcemic activity was present in the serum of a normal parturient cow, as judged by the decreased serum calcium in normal calves infused with such serum, but no such activity was present in the serum from a thyroid-damaged parturient cow. Cal-citonin appeared to be involved in the serum calcium changes at par-turition. In the second group, comprising six experiments, the effects of thyroid status on normal calcium metabolism in cows and calves were studied. In three experiments concurrent 5-day chemical and radio-calcium balances were conducted on calves dosed simultaneously with 47Ca intravenously and 45Ca orally. Bone uptake and gut retention were determined. Lower calcium absorption in three thyroid-damaged calves compared to three controls was indicated in one experiment. Low calcium absorption due, perhaps, to hyperthyroidism in two con-trols in another experiment could have masked decreased calcium ab-sorption in two thyroid-damaged calves. When excessive thyroxine therapy was given to three thyroid-damaged calves no difference from absorption by three controls was noted. The results indicated that in-creasing the level of circulating thyroxine increased the turnover rate of body calcium. In two experiments a total of five lactating cows were dosed intra-venously with radiocalcium to study the effects of thyroxine status on calcium metabolism in lactation. In both experiments increased circulat-ing thyroxine levels, whether induced by injection of thyrotrophin or by direct thyroxine injections, increased the mobilization of body cal-cium reserves. The transfer of calcium from dam to fetus in three control and three thyroid-damaged cows was not affected by thyroid status

The study of Emerson Center, an experimental demonstration service under the administration and supervision of Denison House, Dorchester, Massachusetts

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

The study of Emerson Center, an experimental demonstration service under the administration and supervision of Denison House, Dorchester, Massachusetts

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit