Analysis of speech and other sounds

This thesis comprises a study of various types of signal processing techniques, applied to the tasks of extracting information from speech, cough, and dolphin sounds. Established approaches to analysing speech sounds for the purposes of low data rate speech encoding, and more generally to determine the characteristics of the speech signal, are reviewed. Two new speech processing techniques, shift-and-add and CLEAN (which have previously been applied in the field of astronomical image processing), are developed and described in detail. Shift-and-add is shown to produce a representation of the long-term "average" characteristics of the speech signal. Under certain simplifying assumptions, this can be equated to the average glottal excitation. The iterative deconvolution technique called CLEAN is employed to deconvolve the shift-and-add signal from the speech signal. Because the resulting "CLEAN" signal has relatively few non-zero samples, it can be directly encoded at a low data rate. The performance of a low data rate speech encoding scheme that takes advantage of this attribute of CLEAN is examined in detail. Comparison with the multi-pulse LP C approach to speech coding shows that the new method provides similar levels of performance at medium data rates of about 16kbit/s. The changes that occur in the character of a person's cough sounds when that person is afflicted with asthma are outlined. The development and implementation of a micro-computer-based cough sound analysis system, designed to facilitate the ongoing study of these sounds, is described. The system performs spectrographic analysis on the cough sounds. A graphical user interface allows the sound waveforms and spectra to be displayed and examined in detail. Preliminary results are presented, which indicate that the spectral content of cough sounds are changed by asthma. An automated digital approach to studying the characteristics of Hector's dolphin vocalisations is described. This scheme characterises the sounds by extracting descriptive parameters from their time and frequency domain envelopes. The set of parameters so obtained from a sample of click sequences collected from free-ranging dolphins is analysed by principal component analysis. Results are presented which indicate that Hector's dolphins produce only a small number of different vocal sounds. In addition to the statistical analysis, several of the clicks, which are assumed to be used for echo-location, are analysed in terms of their range-velocity ambiguity functions. The results suggest that Hector's dolphins can distinguish targets separated in range by about 2cm, but are unable to separate targets that differ only in their velocity

Финансовая диагностика предприятия (на примере ООО «СИБНИРПРОЕКТ»)

Объектом исследования является – финансовая диагностика предприятия ООО « СИБМИРПРОЕКТ». Исследования базируются на публикациях периодической печати и сети Интернет, законодательных актах Российской федерации, финансовые отчеты ООО «СИБМИРПРОЕКТ» за период с 2014 г. по 2015 г. Цель работы - провести анализ финансового состояния ООО «СИБМИРПРОЕКТ» В процессе исследования рассматривалась значимость и сущность анализа финансового состояния, его виды, классификация методов и приемов анализа, а также система показателей, которые характеризуют финансовое состояние предприятия. К таким показателям относится: показатели оценки имущественного положения, оценка ликвидности и платежеспособности, оценка финансовой устойчивости и деловой активности, а также рентабельности. Также была рассмотрена характеристика предприятия, вид деятельности, организационно-правовая форма, организационная структура, а также на основе бухгалтерской отчетности предприятия проведена оценка ее деятельности, рассчитаны показатели ликвидности, платежеспособности, финансовой устойчивости, расчеты динамики и структуры. В результате исследования предложен план по оздоровлению финансово-экономического состояния ООО «Сибмипроект» с целью повышения эффективности хозяйственной деятельности исследуемого предприятия. Область применения: разработанный план оздоровления финансово- экономического состояния может быть использован на предприятиях, основными видами деятельности которых являются предоставление услуг по монтажу, ремонту, техническому обслуживанию и перемотке электродвигателей, генераторов и трансформаторов. Экономическая эффективность/значимость работы заключается в том, что сформулированное направление позволит исследуемому предприятию преодолеть кризисное состояние и наращивать производственные мощиThe object of this study is - financial diagnostics of the enterprise "SIBMIRPROEKT" LLC. Research based on the publications of the periodical press and the Internet, the legislative acts of the Russian Federation, financial statements of "SIBMIRPROEKT" for the period from 2014 to 2015 The purpose of work - to analyze the financial condition of LLC "SIBMIRPROEKT" The study examined the importance and essence of financial analysis, its types, classification methods and analysis techniques, as well as a system of indicators that characterize the financial condition of the enterprise. These indicators include: Performance evaluation of property, assessment of liquidity and solvency assessment of financial stability and economic activity, as well as profitability. Also characteristic of the enterprise has been considered, type of activity, legal form, organizational structure, as well as on the basis of financial statements of the enterprise assessed its operations, liquidity ratios calculated solvency, financial stability, the calculations of the dynamics and structure. The study proposed a plan for the improvement of financial and economic state of "Sibmiproekt" to improve the efficiency of economic activities of the investigated companies. Scope: designed the plan of improvement of financial and economic state can be used in enterprises, the main activities of which are the provision of services in mounting, repairing, servicing and rewinding electric motors, generators and transformers. Cost-effectiveness / value of the work lies in the fact that the above direction will allow the study enterprises to overcome the crisis and to increase power productio

A case study exploring Bangladeshi teacher educators' perspectives of information and communication technology (ICT) in education.

This study explores teacher educators’ perceptions of information and communication technology (ICT) within teacher education programs in Bangladesh. The study is set within the context of a nationwide focus on ICT shaped by the Bangladesh Government’s National Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Policy – 2009. The intention of this policy is to increase the use and understanding of ICT by introducing specific courses in primary, secondary and tertiary education, technical and vocational education, and teacher education programs. Aligned with this overarching ICT policy, the National Education Policy, 2010, places special emphasis on the integration of ICT in education by recommending that ICT is taught as a separate learning area, and that it is used as a tool across all curriculum areas. Consequently the National Education Policy recommends that all teachers receive training to make the best use of ICT for educational purposes. Given the critical role of teachers in implementing these policies, this study explores teacher educators’ perceptions of ICT within the teacher education programs in Bangladesh. Ten educators from four different teachers’ training colleges (TTC) were interviewed to explore their experiences and understandings of ICT. This study found that the teacher educators believe ICT is more than a simple teaching-learning tool because it has potential for constructing knowledge and enhancing the quality of education. They also recognized that ICT provides relative advantages over traditional teaching tools, and that it facilitates professional learning via access to current knowledge from national and international sources. However, the educators also understood that the mere provision of computers or ICT in institutions does not ensure quality education. Teachers need to develop technological knowledge about how ICTs work; an understanding of pedagogical strategies that utilize ICT; and the capability to design learning experiences that appropriately integrate technology in relation to learning content. In addition, teacher educators should also be prepared with both pedagogical and andragogical knowledge of teaching about and with ICT. The teacher education programs should integrate ICT in cross-curricular activities so that the trainee teachers can experience how to use ICT in different subject areas. Therefore, ICT courses in the B.Ed. curriculum in Bangladesh should be enriched not only with computer operational skills but also with features of social communication, knowledge construction and dissemination. It is also understood that the successful integration of ICT in Bangladeshi education requires a supportive professional culture and appropriate support from different educational administrative layers including the government sector

La colección nuclear española de cebada: diversidad genética y potencial agronómico

La colección nuclear de cebadas españolas es un recurso fitogenético puesto a punto gracias a un esfuerzo de colaboración entre el IRTA de Cataluña, el ITA de Castilla-León y la EEAD-CSIC de Zaragoza. Es una representación sistematizada de la diversidad genética existente en la colección de referencia guardada en el Centro de Recursos Fitogenéticos del INIA, que conserva más de 2.000 entradas de Hordeum, la mayoría de ellas cebadas autóctonas. Este trabajo presenta la evaluación de la diversidad genética y agronómica de esta colección. La diversidad genética de esta colección fue evaluada mediante marcadores moleculares, concretamente sesenta y cuatro microsatélites, distribuidos por los siete cromosomas. En total, fueron examinados 225 genotipos de cebada. De ellos, 159 líneas puras (148 de seis carreras y 11 de dos carreras) procedentes de variedades locales y 16 variedades antiguas de larga tradición en España, conforman la colección nuclear. Además fueron evaluadas otras 50 entradas testigos de otros orígenes, mayoritariamente europeas. El conjunto de microsatélites empleado detectó un alto grado de polimorfismo general. Asimismo, se identificaron numerosos alelos específicos de grupos de germoplasma, especialmente en las entradas españolas de 6 carreras. Los análisis multivariantes (cluster y coordenadas principales) llevados acabo sobre una matriz de distancias genéticas, así como el análisis de la estructura de población, realizado mediante el programa STRUCTURE, separaron claramente los genotipos de 6 carreras españoles de los europeos. Las entradas de 2 carreras españolas se separaron menos de las variedades de 2 carreras de primavera del conjunto de referencia. Todos estos análisis apuntaron la existencia de dos grupos principales dentro de las entradas españolas de seis carreras. Estos dos grupos mostraron diferencias en distribución geográfica y aparecen tener orígenes distintos. La asociación entre los alelos de 73 marcadores analizados y los parámetros eco-geográficos del lugar de recolección de las entradas de la colección nuclear, mostró que la distribución geográfica de algunos alelos está influenciada por dichos parámetros, lo que sugiere que los patrones de diversidad observados pueden haber sido cuidados en parte por fuerzas adaptativas. La evaluación agronómica de las entradas autóctonas de la colección nuclear, junto con 26 variedades comerciales fue llevada a cabo en diez ensayos, a lo largo de tres años y un total de cinco localidades. Esta evaluación puso de manifiesto la mayor variabilidad existente en las entradas autóctonas par muchos caracteres, en consonancia con la notable diversidad detectada a nivel molecular. Esta evaluación permitió también resaltar en general la superioridad de las variedades comerciales frente a las entradas de la colección nuclear, pero mostró también la estabilidad de estas últimas en condiciones desfavorables. Un análisis de mapeo por asociación a escala del genoma fue llevado a cabo en la totalidad de las entradas de la colección nuclear y también en uno de los grupos genéticos. Este análisis detectó un gran número de asociaciones, que disminuyó drásticamente al tener en cuenta la estructura de poblaciones en el análisis. La mayoría de las asociaciones más probables reveladas coincidieron con QTLs detectados en poblaciones biparentales, o con posiciones de genes conocidos.Esta tesis se realizó gracias a una beca de la Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional y a la financiación de los proyectos del Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia: - Programa Nacional de Recursos y Tecnología Agroalimentaria (INIA) RTA01-088-C3-3 y RF02-016-C2-1; - Plan Nacional AGL2004-05311.Peer reviewe