Speaker specific feature based clustering and its applications in language independent forensic speaker recognition

Forensic speaker recognition (FSR) is the process of determining whether the source of a questioned voice recording (trace) is a specific individual (suspected speaker). The role of the forensic expert is to testify by using, if possible, a quantitative measure of this value to the value of the voice evidence. Using this information as an aid in their judgments and decisions are up to the judge and/or the jury. Most existing methods measure inter-utterance similarities directly based on spectrum-based characteristics, the resulting clusters may not be well related to speaker’s, but rather to different acoustic classes. This research addresses this deficiency by projecting language-independent utterances into a reference space equipped to cover the standard voice features underlying the entire utterance set. The resulting projection vectors naturally represent the language-independent voice-like relationships among all the utterances and are therefore more robust against non-speaker interference. Then a clustering approach is proposed based on the peak approximation in order to maximize the similarities between language-independent utterances within all clusters. This method uses a K-medoid, Fuzzy C-means, Gustafson and Kessel and Gath-Geva algorithm to evaluate the cluster to which each utterance should be allocated, overcoming the disadvantage of traditional hierarchical clustering that the ultimate outcome can only hit the optimum recognition efficiency. The recognition efficiency of K-medoid, Fuzzy C-means, Gustafson and Kessel and Gath-Geva clustering algorithms are 95.2%, 97.3%, 98.5% and 99.7% and EER are 3.62%, 2.91 %, 2.82%, and 2.61% respectively. The EER improvement of the Gath-Geva technique based FSRsystem compared with Gustafson and Kessel and Fuzzy C-means is 8.04% and 11.49% respectivel

Kernal based speaker specific feature extraction and its applications in iTaukei cross language speaker recognition

Extraction and classification algorithms based on kernel nonlinear features are popular in the new direction of research in machine learning. This research paper considers their practical application in the iTaukei automatic speaker recognition system (ASR) for cross-language speech recognition. Second, nonlinear speaker-specific extraction methods such as kernel principal component analysis (KPCA), kernel independent component analysis (KICA), and kernel linear discriminant analysis (KLDA) are summarized. The conversion effects on subsequent classifications were tested in conjunction with Gaussian mixture modeling (GMM) learning algorithms; in most cases, computations were found to have a beneficial effect on classification performance. Additionally, the best results were achieved by the Kernel linear discriminant analysis (KLDA) algorithm. The performance of the ASR system is evaluated for clear speech to a wide range of speech quality using ATR Japanese C language corpus and self-recorded iTaukei corpus. The ASR efficiency of KLDA, KICA, and KLDA technique for 6 sec of ATR Japanese C language corpus 99.7%, 99.6%, and 99.1% and equal error rate (EER) are 1.95%, 2.31%, and 3.41% respectively. The EER improvement of the KLDA technique-based ASR system compared with KICA and KPCA is 4.25% and 8.51% respectively

Determination of acrylamide concentration in processed food products using normal phase highperformance liquid chromatography (HPLC)

Currently, acrylamide concentration in processed food products have become a very serious health issue. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Scientific Committee for Food (SCF) of the European Union also confirmed this concern. In laboratory scale, it was found that acrylamide causes tumors in animals. This study is aimed to determine the concentration of acrylamide in processed food products available in open market. In order to determine the acrylamide concentration, three bakery items and three fried chips from three different brands were analyzed. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) technique was employed for the analysis. The overall distribution of  crylamide concentration was found to be maximum in kurkure followed by lays and minimum in banana Chips.Key words: Processed food, high-performance liquid chromatography, acrylamide, health hazard

The Impact of Imperfect Information on the Health Insurance Choice, Health Outcomes, and Medical Expenditures of the Elderly

Traditional choice models assume that individuals have full information about the set of available products and their characteristics. However, recent empirical studies illustrate the importance of limited information about product availability and characteristics in consumer decision making.The market for health insurance is an important market in which the inherent product complexity frequently leads to incomplete consideration or attention to plan alternatives and their features. This research investigates the dynamic impact of limited information about the insurance alternatives available through Medicare on the expenditures and health outcomes of the elderly, using the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) dataset, which reports individuals’ knowledge about insurance plan characteristics as well as their choice of plan. Simulations from parameter estimates obtained through joint estimation of demand equations show that more informed individuals are more likely to supplement traditional fee-for-service Medicare with Prescription Drug coverage and other supplemental insurance policies and, in spite of consuming more medical care, realize lower out-of-pocket expenditures. Increasing the value of the information measure used in this study by one standard deviation, produces a 30 dollar decrease in out-of-pocket expenditures per beneficiary. However, the total medical care expenditure for each Medicare beneficiary increases by 432 dollars. This net increase in spending of 402 dollars per beneficiary has to be weighed against a positive impact on health status of elderly persons with functional limitations. The probability of such individuals transitioning into a ‘no functional limitation’ state increases by 2 per cent with the increase in information. Furthermore, with limited resources available to expand insurance literacy, policymakers should target the elderly in lower health status for they realize lower out-of-pocket expenditures as well as an improvement in their health outcomes.Doctor of Philosoph

Variation in sex allocation plasticity in three closely related flatworm species

Sex allocation (SA) theory for simultaneous hermaphrodites predicts an influence of group size on SA. Since group size can vary within an individual's lifetime, this can favor the evolution of phenotypically plastic SA. In an emerging comparative context, we here report on SA plasticity in three closely related Macrostomum flatworm species, namely Macrostomum janickei, Macrostomum cliftonensis, and Macrostomum mirumnovem. For each species, we experimentally raised worms in three group sizes (isolated, pairs, and octets) and two enclosure sizes (small and large) in all factorial combinations and studied the effects of these factors on different estimates of SA. In addition, we also evaluated whether isolated worms engage in self‐fertilization. We found that all species have plastic SA, with M. cliftonensis being more plastic than the other two species, as assessed by comparing standardized effect sizes of (a) the presence/absence of mating partners and (b) the strength of sexual competition. Moreover, we found that sperm production rate-but not sperm morphology-is plastic in M. cliftonensis, and that only M. mirumnovem self‐fertilized during our observation period. Our study suggests that both SA and SA plasticity can diverge even between closely related species

Cohomology and Extensions of Relative Rota-Baxter groups

Relative Rota-Baxter groups are generalisations of Rota-Baxter groups and recently shown to be intimately related to skew left braces, which are well-known to yield bijective non-degenerate solutions to the Yang-Baxter equation. In this paper, we develop an extension theory of relative Rota-Baxter groups and introduce their low dimensional cohomology groups, which are distinct from the ones known in the context of Rota-Baxter operators on Lie groups. We establish an explicit bijection between the set of equivalence classes of extensions of relative Rota-Baxter groups and their second cohomology. Further, we delve into the connections between this cohomology and the cohomology of associated skew left braces. We prove that for bijective relative Rota-Baxter groups, the two cohomologies are isomorphic in dimension two.Comment: 30 page

CHARACTERIZATION OF ACTINOMYCETES AGAINST PHYTOPATHOGENIC FUNGI OF GLYCINE MAX (L.)

ABSTRACTObjective: This study was conducted to evaluate the antifungal activity of actinomycetes.Methods: The cross-streak plate method and agar well methods were used for the screening of actinomycetes for determination of antifungal activityof actinomycetes against phytopathogens of the soybean crop.Results: A total of 80 strains of actinomycetes were isolated from the soils of different habitats of Chambal region, Madhya Pradesh, evaluated fortheir ability to inhibit plant pathogens, i.e., Macrophomina phaseolina, Fusarium oxysporum, Colletotrichum truncatum, and Rhizoctonia solani in vitro.Entire isolates were screened for their antifungal activity by agar well method against phytopathogenic fungi. After screening, out of these, only oneactinomycetae ACITM-1 showed antifungal activity against M. phaseolina, F. oxysporum, R. solani, and C. truncatum.Conclusion: This study proves that actinomycetes isolated from soil have good antifungal activity against the fungal pathogens of the soybean crop.Keywords: Antifungal activity, Saprophytic, Phytopathogens, Soybean, Metabolite

Role of combined wash-in and wash-out threshold criteria on dynamic multislice CECT for solitary pulmonary nodule characterisation: data from Indian tertiary care hospital

Background: To prospectively assess the accuracy of combined wash-in and washout characteristics at dynamic contrast material–enhanced multi– detector row computed tomography (CT in distinguishing benign from malignant solitary pulmonary nodule (SPN).Methods: Institutional review board approval and informed consent were obtained. The study included 30 patients (16 men, 14 women; mean age, 52 years; range, 25-80 years) with SPN. After unenhanced CT (1.25mm collimation) scan, dynamic CT was performed (series of images obtained throughout the nodule, with 0.6mm collimation, at 30, 60, 90, and 120 seconds and 4, 5, 9, 12, and 15 minutes) after intravenous injection of contrast medium (120 mL). The HU value of nodule was noted at each of the scans. Data was analyzed for dynamic enhancement characteristics. FNAC from the nodule was done in all patients. The data were correlated with the cytopathological and follow –up results. The significance of various dynamic enhancement features and different threshold criteria for wash-in and wash-out of contrast medium for differentiation between benign and malignant nodules were derived.Results: There were 16 malignant and 14 benign nodules. When diagnostic criteria for malignancy of both wash-in of 25 HU or greater and washout of 5-34 HU were applied, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy for malignancy were 100%, 92.8% and 96.7% respectively.Conclusions: Evaluation of solitary pulmonary nodules by analyzing combined wash-in and washout characteristics at dynamic contrast-enhanced multi– detector row CT showed 96.7% accuracy (p<0.001) for distinguishing benign nodules from malignant nodules