A novel measurement technique for DC voltage and current reducing the DMM loading effects

A novel technique for the measurement of DC voltage and current that reduces the loading effects of a digital multimeter is presented in this work. When the variable of interest is a current (voltage), instead of connecting an ammeter (voltmeter) in series (parallel), it is proposed to connect a voltmeter (ammeter) and an ohmmeter in series (parallel) at the same two terminals conventionally employed. The application of this new measurement technique reduces the loading effects by a factor of at least 100 but up to 500, in comparison with those obtained in the conventional method.Author's versio

Voice Quality Modelling for Expressive Speech Synthesis

This paper presents the perceptual experiments that were carried out in order to validate the methodology of transforming expressive speech styles using voice quality (VoQ) parameters modelling, along with the well-known prosody ( 0 , duration, and energy), from a neutral style into a number of expressive ones. The main goal was to validate the usefulness of VoQ in the enhancement of expressive synthetic speech in terms of speech quality and style identification. A harmonic plus noise model (HNM) was used to modify VoQ and prosodic parameters that were extracted from an expressive speech corpus. Perception test results indicated the improvement of obtained expressive speech styles using VoQ modelling along with prosodic characteristics

Voice Quality Modelling for Expressive Speech Synthesis

This paper presents the perceptual experiments that were carried out in order to validate the methodology of transforming expressive speech styles using voice quality (VoQ) parameters modelling, along with the well-known prosody (F0, duration, and energy), from a neutral style into a number of expressive ones. The main goal was to validate the usefulness of VoQ in the enhancement of expressive synthetic speech in terms of speech quality and style identification. A harmonic plus noise model (HNM) was used to modify VoQ and prosodic parameters that were extracted from an expressive speech corpus. Perception test results indicated the improvement of obtained expressive speech styles using VoQ modelling along with prosodic characteristics

Adaptación del CTH-URL para la competición ALBAYZIN 2008

En esta comunicación describimos el sistema de síntesis de voz presentado a la competición Albayzin 2008. Es un sistema que sigue un esquema clásico de concatenación de unidades basado en corpus. Cabe destacar que los costes de selección se han ajustado mediante un método basado en algoritmos genéticos y que no se ha utilizado ningún sistema de predicción prosódica. Se construyeron dos sistemas preliminares que diferían en el algoritmo de generación de forma de onda escogiendo el que se presenta a la competición mediante un test perceptual.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Intracoronary Administration of Allogeneic Adipose Tissue-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Improves Myocardial Perfusion But Not Left Ventricle Function, in a Translational Model of Acute Myocardial Infarction

Background-Autologous adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ATMSCs) therapy is a promising strategy to improve post-myocardial infarction outcomes. In a porcine model of acute myocardial infarction, we studied the long-term effects and the mechanisms involved in allogeneic ATMSCs administration on myocardial performance. Methods and Results-Thirty-eight pigs underwent 50 minutes of coronary occlusion; the study was completed in 33 pigs. After reperfusion, allogeneic ATMSCs or culture medium (vehicle) were intracoronarily administered. Follow-ups were performed at short (2 days after acute myocardial infarction vehicle-treated, n=10; ATMSCs-treated, n=9) or long term (60 days after acute myocardial infarction vehicle-treated, n=7; ATMSCs-treated, n=7). At short term, infarcted myocardium analysis showed reduced apoptosis in the ATMSCs-treated animals (48.6 +/- 6\% versus 55.9 +/- 5.7\% in vehicle; P=0.017); enhancement of the reparative process with up-regulated vascular endothelial growth factor, granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor, and stromal-derived factor-1 alpha gene expression; and increased M2 macrophages (67.2 +/- 10\% versus 54.7 +/- 10.2\% in vehicle; P=0.016). In long-term groups, increase in myocardial perfusion at the anterior infarct border was observed both on day-7 and day-60 cardiac magnetic resonance studies in ATMSCs-treated animals, compared to vehicle (87.9 +/- 28.7 versus 57.4 +/- 17.7 mL/min per gram at 7 days; P=0.034 and 99 +/- 22.6 versus 43.3 +/- 14.7 22.6 mL/min per gram at 60 days; P=0.0001, respectively). At day 60, higher vascular density was detected at the border zone in the ATMSCs-treated animals (118 +/- 18 versus 92.4 +/- 24.3 vessels/mm(2) in vehicle; P=0.045). Cardiac magnetic resonance-measured left ventricular ejection fraction of left ventricular volumes was not different between groups at any time point. Conclusions-In this porcine acute myocardial infarction model, allogeneic ATMSCs-based therapy was associated with increased cardioprotective and reparative mechanisms and with better cardiac magnetic resonance-measured perfusion. No effect on left ventricular volumes or ejection fraction was observed.This work was supported by grants from Fundacion la Marato de TV3 (122230); Fondo de Investigacion Sanitaria Instituto de Salud Carlos III and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FIS PI14/01682), (RD12/0042/0006), (RD12/0042/0047), (RD12/0019/0029) (TerCel RD16/0011/0006), CIBER Cardiovascular (CB16/11/00403) projects and Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia (SAF2011-30067-C02-01) (SAF2014-59892). Fernaandez-Jimenez was the recipient of nonoverlapping grants from the Ministerio de Economia, Industria, y Competitividad through the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Rio Hortega fellowship); and the Fundacion Jesus Serra, the Fundacion Interhospitalaria de Investigacion Cardiovascular (FIC), and the CNIC (FICNIC fellowship). The use of QMass software was partly supported by a scientific collaboration between the CNIC and Medis Medical Imaging Systems BV. The CNIC is supported by the Ministerio de Economia, Industria, y Competitividad (MINECO) and the Pro CNIC Foundation, and is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (MINECO award SEV-2015-0505). This work was also funded by ``la Caixa Banking Foundation, and the Generalitat de Catalunya (SGR 2014, CERCA Programme). This work has been developed in the context of AdvanceCat with the support of ACCIO (Catalonia Trade \& Investment; Generalitat de Catalunya) under the Catalonian ERDF operational program (European Regional Development Fund) 2014-2020.S

Validation of a Novel, Sensitive, and Specific Urine-Based Test for Recurrence Surveillance of Patients With Non-Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer in a Comprehensive Multicenter Study

Bladder cancer (BC), the most frequent malignancy of the urinary system, is ranked the sixth most prevalent cancer worldwide. Of all newly diagnosed patients with BC, 70-75% will present disease confined to the mucosa or submucosa, the non-muscle-invasive BC (NMIBC) subtype. Of those, approximately 70% will recur after transurethral resection (TUR). Due to high rate of recurrence, patients are submitted to an intensive follow-up program maintained throughout many years, or even throughout life, resulting in an expensive follow-up, with cystoscopy being the most cost-effective procedure for NMIBC screening. Currently, the gold standard procedure for detection and follow-up of NMIBC is based on the association of cystoscopy and urine cytology. As cystoscopy is a very invasive approach, over the years, many different noninvasive assays (both based in serum and urine samples) have been developed in order to search genetic and protein alterations related to the development, progression, and recurrence of BC. TERT promoter mutations and FGFR3 hotspot mutations are the most frequent somatic alterations in BC and constitute the most reliable biomarkers for BC. Based on these, we developed an ultra-sensitive, urine-based assay called Uromonitor®, capable of detecting trace amounts of TERT promoter (c.1-124C > T and c.1-146C > T) and FGFR3 (p.R248C and p.S249C) hotspot mutations, in tumor cells exfoliated to urine samples. Cells present in urine were concentrated by the filtration of urine through filters where tumor cells are trapped and stored until analysis, presenting long-term stability. Detection of the alterations was achieved through a custom-made, robust, and highly sensitive multiplex competitive allele-specific discrimination PCR allowing clear interpretation of results. In this study, we validate a test for NMIBC recurrence detection, using for technical validation a total of 331 urine samples and 41 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues of the primary tumor and recurrence lesions from a large cluster of urology centers. In the clinical validation, we used 185 samples to assess sensitivity/specificity in the detection of NMIBC recurrence vs. cystoscopy/cytology and in a smaller cohort its potential as a primary diagnostic tool for NMIBC. Our results show this test to be highly sensitive (73.5%) and specific (93.2%) in detecting recurrence of BC in patients under surveillance of NMIBC.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Modelado de la cualidad de la voz para la síntesis del habla expresiva

Aquesta tesi es realitza dins del marc de treball existent en el grup d'investigació Grup de Recerca en Tecnologies Mèdia (GTM) d'Enginyeria i Arquitectura La Salle, amb l'objectiu de dotar de major naturalitat a la interacció home-màquina. Per això ens basem en les limitacions de la tecnologia emprada fins al moment, detectant punts de millora en els que poder aportar solucions. Donat que la naturalitat de la parla està íntimament relacionada amb l'expressivitat que aquesta pot transmetre, aquests punts de millora es centren en la capacitat de treballar amb emocions o estils de parla expressius en general.L'objectiu últim d'aquesta tesi és la generació d'estils de parla expressius en l'àmbit de sistemes de Conversió de Text a Parla (CTP) orientats a la Síntesi de la Parla Expressiva (SPE), essent possible transmetre un missatge oral amb una certa expressivitat que l'oient sigui capaç de percebre i interpretar correctament. No obstant, aquest objectiu implica diferents metes intermitges: conèixer les opcions de parametrització existents, entendre cadascun dels paràmetres, detectar els pros i contres de la seva utilització, descobrir les relacions existents entre ells i els estils de parla expressius i, finalment, portar a terme la síntesi de la parla expressiva. Donat això, el propi procés de síntesi implica un treball previ en reconeixement d'emocions, que en si mateix podria ser una línia complerta d'investigació, ja que aporta el coneixement necessari per extreure models que poden ser usats durant el procés de síntesi.La cerca de l'increment de la naturalitat ha implicat una millor caracterització de la parla emocional o expressiva, raó per la qual s'ha investigat en parametritzacions que poguessin portar a terme aquesta comesa. Aquests són els paràmetres de Qualitat de la Veu Voice Quality (VoQ), que presenten com a característica principal que són capaços de caracteritzar individualment la parla, identificant cadascun dels factors que fan que sigui única. Els beneficis potencials, que aquest tipus de parametrització pot aportar a la interacció natural, són de dos classes: el reconeixement i la síntesi d'estils de parla expressius. La proposta de la parametrització de VoQ no pretén substituir a la ja emprada prosòdia, sinó tot el contrari, treballar conjuntament amb ella per tal de millorar els resultats obtinguts fins al moment.Un cop realitzada la selecció de paràmetres es planteja el modelat de la VoQ, és a dir la metodologia d'anàlisi i de modificació, de forma que cadascun d'ells pugui ser extret a partir de la senyal de veu i posteriorment modificat durant la síntesi. Així mateix, es proposen variacions pels paràmetres implicats i tradicionalment utilitzats, adaptant la seva definició al context de la parla expressiva. A partir d'aquí es passa a treballar en les relacions existents amb els estils de parla expressius, presentant finalment la metodologia de transformació d'aquests últims, mitjançant la modificació conjunta de la VoQ y la prosòdia, per a la SPE en un sistema de CTP.Esta tesis se realiza dentro del marco de trabajo existente en el grupo de investigación Grup de Recerca en Tecnologies Mèdia (GTM) de Enginyeria i Arquitectura La Salle, con el objetivo de dotar de mayor naturalidad a la interacción hombre-máquina. Para ello nos basamos en las limitaciones de la tecnología empleada hasta el momento, detectando puntos de mejora en los que poder aportar soluciones. Debido a que la naturalidad del habla está íntimamente relacionada con la expresividad que esta puede transmitir, estos puntos de mejora se centran en la capacidad de trabajar con emociones o estilos de habla expresivos en general.El objetivo último de esta tesis es la generación de estilos de habla expresivos en el ámbito de sistemas de Conversión de Texto en Habla (CTH) orientados a la Síntesis del Habla Expresiva (SHE), siendo posible transmitir un mensaje oral con una cierta expresividad que el oyente sea capaz de percibir e interpretar correctamente. No obstante, este objetivo implica diferentes metas intermedias: conocer las opciones de parametrización existentes, entender cada uno de los parámetros, detectar los pros y contras de su utilización, descubrir las relaciones existentes entre ellos y los estilos de habla expresivos y, finalmente, llevar a cabo la síntesis del habla expresiva. El propio proceso de síntesis implica un trabajo previo en reconocimiento de emociones, que en sí mismo podría ser una línea completa de investigación, ya que muestra la viabilidad de usar los parámetros seleccionados en la discriminación de estos y aporta el conocimiento necesario para extraer los modelos que pueden ser usados durante el proceso de síntesis.La búsqueda del incremento de la naturalidad ha implicado una mejor caracterización del habla emocional o expresiva, con lo que para ello se ha investigado en parametrizaciones que pudieran llevar a cabo este cometido. Estos son los parámetros de Cualidad de la Voz Voice Quality (VoQ), que presentan como característica principal que son capaces de caracterizar individualmente el habla, identificando cada uno de los factores que hacen que sea única. Los beneficios potenciales, que este tipo de parametrización puede aportar a la interacción natural, son de dos clases: el reconocimiento y la síntesis de estilos de habla expresivos. La propuesta de la parametrización de VoQ no pretende sustituir a la ya empleada prosodia, sino todo lo contrario, trabajar conjuntamente con ella para mejorar los resultados obtenidos hasta el momento.Una vez realizada la selección de los parámetros se plantea el modelado de la VoQ, es decir, la metodología de análisis y de modificación de forma que cada uno de ellos pueda ser extraído a partir de la señal de voz y posteriormente modificado durante la síntesis. Asimismo, se proponen variaciones para los parámetros implicados y tradicionalmente utilizados, adaptando su definición al contexto del habla expresiva.A partir de aquí se pasa a trabajar en las relaciones existentes con los estilos de habla expresivos, presentando finalmente la metodología de transformación de estos últimos, mediante la modificación conjunta de VoQ y prosodia, para la SHE en un sistema de CTH.This thesis is conducted on the existing working framework in the Grup de Recerca en Tecnologies Mèdia (GTM) research group of the Enginyeria i Arquitectura La Salle, with the aim of providing the man-machine interaction with more naturalness. To do this, we are based on the limitations of the technology used up to now, detecting the improvement points where we could contribute solutions. Given that the speech naturalness is closely linked with the expressivity communication, these improvement points are focused on the ability of working with emotions or expressive speech styles in general.The final goal of this thesis is the expressive speech styles generation in the field of Text-to-Speech (TTS) systems aimed at Expressive Speech Synthesis (ESS), with the possibility of communicating an oral message with a certain expressivity that the listener will be able to correctly perceive and interpret. Nevertheless, this goal involves different intermediate aims: to know the existing parameterization options, to understand each of the parameters, to find out the existing relations among them and the expressive speech styles and, finally, to carry out the expressive speech synthesis. All things considered, the synthesis process involves a previous work in emotion recognition, which could be a complete research field, since it shows the feasibility of using the selected parameters during their discrimination and provides with the necessary knowledge for the modelling that can be used during the synthesis process.The search for the naturalness improvement has implied a better characterization of the emotional or expressive speech, so we have researched on parameterizations that could perform this task. These are the Voice Quality (VoQ) parameters, which main feature is they are able to characterize the speech in an individual way, identifying each factor that makes it unique. The potential benefits that this kind of parameterization can provide with natural interaction are twofold: the expressive speech styles recognition and the synthesis. The VoQ parameters proposal is not trying to replace prosody, but working altogether to improve the results so far obtained.Once the parameters selection is conducted, the VoQ modelling is raised (i. e. analysis and modification methodology), so each of them can be extracted from the voice signal and later on modified during the synthesis. Also, variations are proposed for the involved and traditionally used parameters, adjusting their definition to the expressive speech context. From here, we work on the existing relations with the expressive speech styles and, eventually we show the transformation methodology for these ones, by means of the modification of VoQ and prosody, for the ESS in a TTS system

Global Emergency System Based on WPAN and LPWAN Hybrid Networks

There are multiple methods of communication for the transmission of every type of alarm. In the case of emergency systems, they are usually controlled by private companies that work as bridges between the source and the receiver of an emergency. Furthermore, it is necessary to use an independent communication system for each building, requiring human vigilance, leading to an increase in infrastructure and service costs as well as response time. This paper proposes a hybrid network by combining both wireless personal access network (WPAN) and low power wide access network (LPWAN) communication for the complete development of a communication architecture oriented to an emergency system. The main aim of this work is to provide a global emergency system that is focused on fire detection but is also suitable for other critical events, with low energy consumption, a wide communication range covering up to 50 km, and a low cost of service and infrastructure. This proposal reduces the total energy consumption of the system with respect to typical fire detection systems

Transcripción fonética de acrónimos en castellano utilizando el algoritmo C4.5

Este trabajo presenta un transcriptor automático de acrónimos con el objetivo de incrementar la calidad de la síntesis generada en un conversor de texto en habla, ante la presencia de acrónimos en el texto. La transcripción de los acrónimos se realiza usando un árbol de decisión (algoritmo C4.5) sobre los datos de entrenamiento. El trabajo presenta los resultados obtenidos para diferentes configuraciones del algoritmo, comparando su funcionamiento respecto a otros sistemas de aprendizaje.This work presents an automatic acronyms transcription system in order to increase the synthetic speech quality of text-to-speech systems, in the presence of acronyms in the input text. The acronyms transcription is conducted by using a decision tree (C4.5 algorithm). The work presents the results obtained for different algorithm configurations, validating its performance with respect to other learning systems.Este trabajo ha sido realizado con el apoyo del proyecto SALERO (IST-FP6-027122) de la Comisión Europea