Speech and Speaker Recognition for Home Automation: Preliminary Results

International audienceIn voice controlled multi-room smart homes ASR and speaker identification systems face distance speech conditionswhich have a significant impact on performance. Regarding voice command recognition, this paper presents an approach whichselects dynamically the best channel and adapts models to the environmental conditions. The method has been tested on datarecorded with 11 elderly and visually impaired participants in a real smart home. The voice command recognition error ratewas 3.2% in off-line condition and of 13.2% in online condition. For speaker identification, the performances were below veryspeaker dependant. However, we show a high correlation between performance and training size. The main difficulty was the tooshort utterance duration in comparison to state of the art studies. Moreover, speaker identification performance depends on the sizeof the adapting corpus and then users must record enough data before using the system

Direct torque control of multiphase doubly converter-fed asynchronous machines incorporating the harmonic torques

Doubly fed asynchronous machines have an outstanding property: they can be operated up to twice rated speed delivering full rated torque. This paper presents, for the first time in the literature, a control system for multiphase asynchronous machines fed by Voltage Source Inverters (VSIs) both in stator and rotor that incorporates the harmonic torques. The system has three main and distinctive features: the independent control of the fundamental and harmonic torques, a very fast dynamic response for each one of these torques and a powerful method for selecting the best suited inverter state to achieve the evolution of the fundamental and harmonics flux linkage space phasors prescribed by the external control loops. The first feature is achieved through the decoupling of the multiphase machine provided by the Space Phasor Theory (SPhTh). The second one comes from the application of the General Approach for a very Fast TOrque Control (GAFTOC) principle. The third feature relies on using for multi-phase VSIs a simple but powerful switching-table based mode of operation that overcomes the limitations of the switching-table based modes of operation developed up to now, that only enable for the inverter to feed machines with no harmonic torques contribution

Indicaciones de amigdalectomía en pacientes adultos en el Hospital Clínico Univerisitario "Lozano Blesa"

Introducción: La amigdalectomía es un acto quirúrgico que consiste en la extirpación de las amígdalas palatinas. La herida quirúrgica, se resuelve por segunda intención, siendo la aparición de dolor y la hemorragia secundaria los principales problemas de morbilidad postoperatorios. Representa una de las cirugías más frecuentes dentro del área de la otorrinolaringología. Objetivo: El objetivo principal de este trabajo es conocer el número de las intervenciones de amigdalectomía en adultos realizadas en el HCU “Lozano Blesa”, su distribución por edad y sexo y las causas de su indicación quirúrgica, así como las respectivas prevalencias de las mismas. Material y métodos: Hemos revisado 419 casos, desde 2007 hasta 2016. Hemos realizado un estudio descriptivo, observacional y transversal, a partir de una base de datos que hemos desarrollado con esta finalidad. Los criterios de inclusión han sido: pacientes intervenidos de amigdalectomía en el HCU por cualquier indicación quirúrgica y acceso a sus historias clínicas completas en un intervalo de tiempo de 9 años. Resultados: La indicación quirúrgica más frecuente en adultos es en la amigdalitis crónica, seguida del síndrome de apnea-hipopnea obstructiva del sueño y, siendo mucho menos frecuentes el absceso periamigdalino y la sospecha de neoformación maligna. Se observó un mayor número de casos de amigdalectomía en mujeres, con diagnóstico de amigdalitis crónica y un mayor porcentaje de varones con diagnósticos de absceso periamigdalino y síndrome de apnea/hipopnea del sueño, aunque estas diferencias no fueron estadísticamente significativas. En la comparación por edad de las diferentes indicaciones de amigdalectomía, encontramos entre ellas diferencias estadísticas significativas de forma global. Conclusiones: El orden de importancia de las principales indicaciones quirúrgicas obtenidas en nuestro estudio coincide con la documentación consultada; sin embargo, otros aspectos que hemos analizado han sido más difíciles de contrastar por no existir una evidencia estadísticamente significativa.<br /

Case Report: Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure: Making the Diagnosis between Infection and Acute Alcoholic Hepatitis

Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) represents a reversible syndrome associated with high short-term mortality, characterized by acute decompensation in patients with chronic liver disease and extrahepatic organ failure. Diagnosis and prognosis assessment is based on a newly developed diagnostic score, the Chronic Liver Failure Consortium Organ Failure score. Susceptibility to infections and systemic inflammation are typical triggers. The authors report a case in which a patient with alcohol-related cirrhosis was admitted to the hospital with acute decompensation and developed ACLF during hospitalization. This case led to an evaluation of the underlying process causing ACLF: infection versus acute alcoholic hepatitis

Obesity and the endocannabinoid system: Is there still a future for CB1 antagonists in obesity?

The current epidemic of obesity in western countries is being worsened by the lack of effective pharmacotherapies. The apparent success of a central nervous systemacting cannabinoid CB1 receptor antagonist-based treatment for obesity was hampered by the appearance of psychiatric side effects in certain patients. These adverse effects forced its withdrawal from the market. However, the discovery that the main beneficial metabolic effects of cannabinoid CB1 receptor antagonists were derived of its activity in peripheral tissues, including the adipose tissue, opened the possibility of rescuing this type of therapy. This goal might be achieved by differential medicinal chemistry approaches. The present review examines these options that include peripheral-restricted cannabinoid CB1 receptor antagonists, dual ligands and combinatorial therapies using sub-effective doses of CB1 receptor antagonists that might be devoid of side effects.Peer Reviewe

Reduction of chilling injury in pomegranate treated with polyamines before cold storage

[SPA] Con el objetivo de reducir los daños por frío en granada almacenada a 2°C se realizaron tratamientos con putrescina (Put) y spermidina (Spd) bajo infiltración a vacío. Los frutos no tratados desarrollaron rápidamente síntomas de daño por frío que se manifestaron por el pardeamiento de la piel, el incremento en la salida de electrolitos y la pérdida de peso. Al mismo tiempo, se observó pérdidas de firmeza y color e incrementos en la tasa de respiración e índice de madurez. Todos estos cambios fueron significativamente retrasados en los frutos tratados. La reducción de los daños por frío se correlacionó con el mayor nivel de poliaminas endógenas en la piel, lo que podría ser considerado como un mecanismo de defensa y adaptación de la granada a las bajas temperaturas. [ENG] With the aim of reduce chilling injury in pomegranate fruit stored at low temperature (2°C), putrescine (Put) or spermdine (Spd) at 1 mM under pressure-infiltration were applied. Non-treated fruit developed rapidly chilling injury, with main symptoms being skin browning, increased electrolyte leakage and weight loss. In addition, during storage losses of firmness and colour and increases in soluble solids concentrations/acidity ratio and respiration rate were observed. The reduction in chilling injury severity was correlated with increased levels of free endogenous Put and Spd in the skin, which could be considered as a mechanism of protection and acclimation of pomegranate to cold temperatures

Maturity Stage at Harvest Determines the Fruit Quality and Antioxidant Potential after Storage of Sweet Cherry Cultivars

Eleven sweet cherry cultivars were harvested at three maturity stages (S1 to S3) based on skin color and stored at 2 °C for 16 days and a further period of 2 days at 20 °C (shelf life, SL) to analyze quality (color, total soluble solids, and total acidity) and bioactive compounds (total phenolics and anthocyanins) and their relationship to total antioxidant activity (TAA), determined in hydrophilic (HTAA) or lipophilic (L-TAA) fraction. For all cultivars and maturity stages, the ripening process advanced during postharvest storage with increases in color intensity and decreases in acidity, as well as enhancements in phenolics, anthocyanins, and TAA in both H-TAA and L-TAA, although important differences existed among cultivars. The results showed that sweet cherry should be harvested at stage S3 (4 days later than the commercial harvest date) since after 16 days of cold storage + SL, the highest antioxidant capacity was achieved for both H-TAA and L-TAA

InN thin film lattice dynamics by grazing incidence inelastic x-ray scattering

Achieving comprehensive information on thin film lattice dynamics so far has eluded well established spectroscopic techniques. We demonstrate here the novel application of grazing incidence inelastic x-ray scattering combined with ab initio calculations to determine the complete elastic stiffness tensor, the acoustic and low-energy optic phonon dispersion relations of thin wurtzite indium nitride films. Indium nitride is an especially relevant example, due to the technological interest for optoelectronic and solar cell applications in combination with other group III nitrides.J. S. acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation by CICYT Grants No. MAT2010-2-129-C02-01 and No. ENE2008-04373, and by Generalitat de Catalunya Grant No. 2009SGR1251. F. J. M. is thankful for the financial support from CICYT projects No. CSD2007-00045 and No. MAT2010-21270-C04-04, and the "Programa de Incentivo a la Investigacion" of the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia through project No. UPV2010-0096. A. H. R. has been supported by CONACyT Mexico under projects No. TAMU-Conacyt and No. J-83247-F. We acknowledge the beam time granted by ESRF.Serrano, J.; Bosak, A.; Krisch, M.; Manjón Herrera, FJ.; Romero, AH.; Garro, N.; Wang, X.... (2011). InN thin film lattice dynamics by grazing incidence inelastic x-ray scattering. Physical Review Letters. 106(20):2055011-2055014. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.205501S2055011205501410620Wu, J., Walukiewicz, W., Yu, K. M., Ager, J. W., Haller, E. E., Lu, H., … Nanishi, Y. (2002). Unusual properties of the fundamental band gap of InN. Applied Physics Letters, 80(21), 3967-3969. doi:10.1063/1.1482786Davydov, V. Y., Klochikhin, A. A., Seisyan, R. P., Emtsev, V. V., Ivanov, S. V., Bechstedt, F., … Graul, J. (2002). Absorption and Emission of Hexagonal InN. Evidence of Narrow Fundamental Band Gap. physica status solidi (b), 229(3), r1-r3. doi:10.1002/1521-3951(200202)229:33.0.co;2-oJones, R. E., Yu, K. M., Li, S. X., Walukiewicz, W., Ager, J. W., Haller, E. E., … Schaff, W. J. (2006). Evidence forp-Type Doping of InN. Physical Review Letters, 96(12). doi:10.1103/physrevlett.96.125505Song, J.-H., Akiyama, T., & Freeman, A. J. (2008). Stabilization of Bulkp-Type and Surfacen-Type Carriers in Mg-Doped InN{0001}Films. Physical Review Letters, 101(18). doi:10.1103/physrevlett.101.186801Qian, Z. G., Shen, W. Z., Ogawa, H., & Guo, Q. X. (2004). Experimental studies of lattice dynamical properties in indium nitride. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 16(12), R381-R414. doi:10.1088/0953-8984/16/12/r01Davydov, V. Y., Emtsev, V. V., Goncharuk, I. N., Smirnov, A. N., Petrikov, V. D., Mamutin, V. V., … Inushima, T. (1999). Experimental and theoretical studies of phonons in hexagonal InN. 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Computer Physics Communications, 180(12), 2582-2615. doi:10.1016/j.cpc.2009.07.007Troullier, N., & Martins, J. L. (1991). Efficient pseudopotentials for plane-wave calculations. Physical Review B, 43(3), 1993-2006. doi:10.1103/physrevb.43.1993Hartwigsen, C., Goedecker, S., & Hutter, J. (1998). Relativistic separable dual-space Gaussian pseudopotentials from H to Rn. Physical Review B, 58(7), 3641-3662. doi:10.1103/physrevb.58.3641Kim, K., Lambrecht, W. R. L., & Segall, B. (1996). Elastic constants and related properties of tetrahedrally bonded BN, AlN, GaN, and InN. Physical Review B, 53(24), 16310-16326. doi:10.1103/physrevb.53.16310Sarasamak, K., Limpijumnong, S., & Lambrecht, W. R. L. (2010). Pressure-dependent elastic constants and sound velocities of wurtzite SiC, GaN, InN, ZnO, and CdSe, and their relation to the high-pressure phase transition: A first-principles study. Physical Review B, 82(3). doi:10.1103/physrevb.82.035201Wright, A. F. (1997). Elastic properties of zinc-blende and wurtzite AlN, GaN, and InN. Journal of Applied Physics, 82(6), 2833-2839. doi:10.1063/1.366114Łepkowski, S. P., Majewski, J. A., & Jurczak, G. (2005). Nonlinear elasticity in III-N compounds:Ab initiocalculations. Physical Review B, 72(24). doi:10.1103/physrevb.72.245201Bungaro, C., Rapcewicz, K., & Bernholc, J. (2000). Ab initiophonon dispersions of wurtzite AlN, GaN, and InN. Physical Review B, 61(10), 6720-6725. doi:10.1103/physrevb.61.6720Manjón, F. J., Marí, B., Serrano, J., & Romero, A. H. (2005). Silent Raman modes in zinc oxide and related nitrides. Journal of Applied Physics, 97(5), 053516. doi:10.1063/1.185622

Role of retinal pigment epithelium-derived exosomes and autophagy in new blood vessel formation

Autophagy and exosome secretion play important roles in a variety of physiological and disease states, including the development of age‐related macular degeneration. Previous studies have demonstrated that these cellular mechanisms share common pathways of activation. Low oxidative damage in ARPE‐19 cells, alters both autophagy and exosome biogenesis. Moreover, oxidative stress modifies the protein and genetic cargo of exosomes, possibly affecting the fate of surrounding cells. In order to understand the connection between these two mechanisms and their impact on angiogenesis, stressed ARPE‐19 cells were treated with a siRNA‐targeting Atg7, a key protein for the formation of autophagosomes. Subsequently, we observed the formation of multivesicular bodies and the release of exosomes. Released exosomes contained VEGFR2 as part of their cargo. This receptor for VEGF—which is critical for the development of new blood vessels—was higher in exosome populations released from stressed ARPE‐19. While stressed exosomes enhanced tube formation, exosomes became ineffective after silencing VEGFR2 in ARPE‐19 cells and were, consequently, unable to influence angiogenesis. Moreover, vessel sprouting in the presence of stressed exosomes seems to follow a VEGF‐independent pathway. We propose that abnormal vessel growth correlates with VEGFR2‐expressing exosomes release from stressed ARPE‐19 cells, and is directly linked to autophagy

Analysing the effect of land use and vegetation cover on soil infiltration in three contrasting environments in Northeast Spain

Este estudio presenta el análisis conjunto de la información obtenida a partir de 195 ensayos de infiltración en el campo, que fueron realizados mediante dispositivos de doble anillo. Los experimentos se realizaron en 20 situaciones contrastadas de usos del suelo, los cuales se encuentran distribuidos en tres contextos geográficos (costa NE de Cataluña, monte bajo del sector central del valle del Ebro y montaña media de la vertiente Sur del Pirineo central). El objetivo de esta investigación es determinar los factores más importantes que explican la variabilidad de la infiltración: uso del suelo, tipo de cubierta vegetal, características del suelo y del substrato rocoso, humedad del suelo y altitud. El análisis de los datos se realizó mediante la comparación de las variables a partir de distintos métodos estadísticos: test de correlación lineal bivariada, ANOVA y comparaciones múltiples de Bonferroni. Los resultados muestran que la variabilidad de la infiltración está principalmente asociada al tipo de uso del suelo, siendo el factor más determinante. El tipo de cubierta vegetal se mostró como el segundo factor en importancia, mientras la humedad del suelo no presentó correlación con la infiltración. La interpretación de estos resultados sugiere que las características de las áreas de estudio son más determinantes que las variaciones temporales del estado hídrico del suelo, aunque la humedad pueda tener un grado de influencia mayor o menor en cada uso del suelo. La validez de los resultados obtenidos en este estudio está avalada porque se ha analizado un amplio espectro de escenarios de uso del suelo/cubierta vegetal, incluso teniendo en cuenta que se han comparado zonas con distintas características geográficas y geológicas. This study presents a joint analysis of the information from 195 field infiltration experiments, using double ring devices. The experiments were carried out in 20 contrasting types of land use, distributed across three geographic contexts (coast of NE Catalonia, low mountains in the central Ebro Valley and mid-height mountains from the southern range of the Central Pyrenees). The objective of this research was to determine the most important factors explaining infiltration variability: land use, type of vegetation cover, soil and bedrock characteristics, soil moisture and altitude. Data analysis was performed by comparing variables using statistical methods: bivariate lineal correlation, ANOVA and Bonferroni multiple comparison tests. Results show that infiltration variability is the most important factor and mainly linked to land use, followed by vegetation type. In contrast, soil moisture did not show any relation with infiltration. The interpretation of these results suggests that the characteristics of the study areas are more decisive than temporal variations of soil water content, although humidity can influence land use to a greater or lesser degree. The validity of the results obtained in this study is supported by the wide range of land use and land cover analysed, located in areas with different geographical and geological characteristics