Whisper-to-speech conversion using restricted Boltzmann machine arrays

Whispers are a natural vocal communication mechanism, in which vocal cords do not vibrate normally. Lack of glottal-induced pitch leads to low energy, and an inherent noise-like spectral distribution reduces intelligibility. Much research has been devoted to processing of whispers, including conversion of whispers to speech. Unfortunately, among several approaches, the best reconstructed speech to date still contains obviously artificial muffles and suffers from an unnatural prosody. To address these issues, the novel use of multiple restricted Boltzmann machines (RBMs) is reported as a statistical conversion model between whisper and speech spectral envelopes. Moreover, the accuracy of estimated pitch is improved using machine learning techniques for pitch estimation within only voiced (V) regions. Both objective and subjective evaluations show that this new method improves the quality of whisper-reconstructed speech compared with the state-of-the-art approaches

Seed reserve utilization and seedling growth of treated seeds of mountain rye (Secale montanum) as affected by drought stress

The environmental stress such as, drought are serious obstacles for field crops in further areas of the world, especially in arid and semiarid regions. In order to investigate drought stress on seed reserve utilization and seedling growth of treated seeds of mountain rye (Secale montanum), an experiment was carried out. Factorial experiment was carried out in completely randomized design with three replications. The first factor was the seed treatments (unpriming, hydropriming and osmopriming) and the second factor was drought stress. To create drought stress, polyetylenglycol 6000 (PEG 6000) in osmotic levels at 0 (as control), -0.4, -0.8, - 1.2 and -1.6 MPa were used. The results indicated that for these traits: germination percentage (GP), timson index (TI), energy of germination (EG), weight of utilized (mobilized) seed (WMSR), seed reserve utilization efficiency (SRUE), seedling dry weight (SLDW), and seed reserve depletion percentage (SRDP), was a significant treatment × drought interaction. Thus hydropriming and osmopriming improvement study traits in Secale montanum under drought stress. While in higher osmotic pressure the highest seed reserve utilization were obtained from osmopriming

EFFECTS OF ACUTE AND CHRONIC LITHIUM ON MORPHINE-INDUCED ANALGESIA IN MICE BY FORMALIN TEST

In this study, the effects of acute and chronic lithium on nociception induced by formalin and its interactions with morphine-induced analgesia were studied in mice. Formalin test was selected to study nociception. Subcutaneous injection of different doses of morphine (1.5, 3 and 6 mg/kg) induced analgesia in a dose dependent manner in both phases of the formalin test. Intraperitoneal administration of different doses of lithium (20, 40, 60 and 80 mg/kg) induced analgesia in late phase but didnot show any significant effect in early phase. Acute administration of lithium (40, 80 mg/kg) increased analgesia induced by morphine (3 mg/kg) in both phases of formalin test. Prctreatment of the animals with chronic lithium (1200 mg/l) for 15 days induced antinociception and increased .the analgesia induced by morphine in both phases of formalin test. It is concluded that administration of acute and chronic lithium can probably affect pain response in both phases of formalin test and interact with morphine-induced antinociception

α-Amylase inhibitory property, antioxidant activity and toxicological study of Salvia chloroleuca

Background and objectives: Salvia chloroleuca Rech. f. & Allen., is an endemic species growing wildly in north east and center parts of Iran but there is no information about its safety. To provide information about the safety of the species, we evaluated its acute and sub chronic toxicity in rats. Methods: In acute toxicity study, the aqueous methanol (80%) extract at a single dose of 2000 mg/kg/day was administered orally to male and female rats and signs of toxicity two weeks after administration were observed. For the subchronic toxicity test, the extract at doses of 250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg/day were orally administered to the rats of both sexes for 45 days. Mortality, clinical signs of toxicity and body weight changes were monitored during the study. Moreover, α-amylase enzyme inhibition, total phenol content, and antioxidant (DPPH and FRAP assays) activity of different fractions of aerial part were evaluated. Results: The methanol and aqueous methanol (80%) extracts showed α-amylase enzyme inhibition with IC50 values 14.03 mg/mL and 18.05 mg/mL, respectively. The IC50 value for ethyl acetate, methanol and aqueous methanol (80%) extracts in radical scavenging assay were calculated as 288.83, 97.93, and 108.02 μg/mL, respectively. Among all extracts, methanol (228.4±12.05) demonstrated the highest FRAP value, followed by methanol (80%) extract (220.4±8.08) and ethyl acetate extract (156.4±10.06). In acute toxicity and subchronic study, neither mortality nor changes in behavior or any other parameter were observed. Conclusion: Our findings indicate potent in vitro α-amylase and antioxidant activity of S. chloroleuca andpropose its potential as an anti-diabetic agent for treatment of noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) patients