Deep Cross-Modal Audio-Visual Generation

Cross-modal audio-visual perception has been a long-lasting topic in psychology and neurology, and various studies have discovered strong correlations in human perception of auditory and visual stimuli. Despite works in computational multimodal modeling, the problem of cross-modal audio-visual generation has not been systematically studied in the literature. In this paper, we make the first attempt to solve this cross-modal generation problem leveraging the power of deep generative adversarial training. Specifically, we use conditional generative adversarial networks to achieve cross-modal audio-visual generation of musical performances. We explore different encoding methods for audio and visual signals, and work on two scenarios: instrument-oriented generation and pose-oriented generation. Being the first to explore this new problem, we compose two new datasets with pairs of images and sounds of musical performances of different instruments. Our experiments using both classification and human evaluations demonstrate that our model has the ability to generate one modality, i.e., audio/visual, from the other modality, i.e., visual/audio, to a good extent. Our experiments on various design choices along with the datasets will facilitate future research in this new problem space

Nutrient Management for Higher Productivity of Swarna Sub1 Under Flash Floods Areas

Two field experiments were conducted at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Tarahara, Nepal during 2012 and 2013 to determine the effect of agronomic management on growth and yield of Swarna Sub1 under flash floods. The first experiment was laid out in a split plot design with three replications; and four different nutrient combinations at nursery as main plots and three age groups of rice seedlings as sub plots. The second experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design and replicated thrice; with three post flood nutrient doses at six and 12 days after de-submergence (dad). The experiments were complete submerged at 10 days after transplanting for 12 days. The survival percentage, at 21 dad, was significantly higher in plots planted with 35 (90.25%) and 40 (91.58%) days-old seedlings compared to 30 days-old seedlings (81.75%). Plots with 35 days-old seedlings produced 5.15 t ha-1 with advantage of 18.83% over 30 days-old seedlings. Plots with 100-50-50 kg N-P2O5-K2O/ha at nursery recorded the highest grain filling of 79.41% and grain yield of 5.068 t/ha with more benefit. Post flood application of 20-20 N-K20kg/ha at 6 dad resulted in higher plant survival and taller plants, leading to significantly higher grain yield of 5.183 t/ha and straw yield of 5.315 t/ha. Hence, 35-40 days old seedlings raised with 100-50-50 kg N-P2O5-K2O /ha in nursery and the additional application of20-20 kg N-K2O /ha at 6 dad improved plant survival and enhanced yield of Swarna Sub1 under flash flood conditions. The practice has prospects of saving crop loss with getting rice yield above national average yield leading to enhanced food security in the flood prone areas of Nepal

Technology Pipeline for Large Scale Cross-Lingual Dubbing of Lecture Videos into Multiple Indian Languages

Cross-lingual dubbing of lecture videos requires the transcription of the original audio, correction and removal of disfluencies, domain term discovery, text-to-text translation into the target language, chunking of text using target language rhythm, text-to-speech synthesis followed by isochronous lipsyncing to the original video. This task becomes challenging when the source and target languages belong to different language families, resulting in differences in generated audio duration. This is further compounded by the original speaker's rhythm, especially for extempore speech. This paper describes the challenges in regenerating English lecture videos in Indian languages semi-automatically. A prototype is developed for dubbing lectures into 9 Indian languages. A mean-opinion-score (MOS) is obtained for two languages, Hindi and Tamil, on two different courses. The output video is compared with the original video in terms of MOS (1-5) and lip synchronisation with scores of 4.09 and 3.74, respectively. The human effort also reduces by 75%

Developing Standard Treatment Workflows—way to universal healthcare in India

Primary healthcare caters to nearly 70% of the population in India and provides treatment for approximately 80–90% of common conditions. To achieve universal health coverage (UHC), the Indian healthcare system is gearing up by initiating several schemes such as National Health Protection Scheme, Ayushman Bharat, Nutrition Supplementation Schemes, and Inderdhanush Schemes. The healthcare delivery system is facing challenges such as irrational use of medicines, over- and under-diagnosis, high out-of-pocket expenditure, lack of targeted attention to preventive and promotive health services, and poor referral mechanisms. Healthcare providers are unable to keep pace with the volume of growing new scientific evidence and rising healthcare costs as the literature is not published at the same pace. In addition, there is a lack of common standard treatment guidelines, workflows, and reference manuals from the Government of India. Indian Council of Medical Research in collaboration with the National Health Authority, Govt. of India, and the WHO India country office has developed Standard Treatment Workflows (STWs) with the objective to be utilized at various levels of healthcare starting from primary to tertiary level care. A systematic approach was adopted to formulate the STWs. An advisory committee was constituted for planning and oversight of the process. Specialty experts' group for each specialty comprised of clinicians working at government and private medical colleges and hospitals. The expert groups prioritized the topics through extensive literature searches and meeting with different stakeholders. Then, the contents of each STW were finalized in the form of single-pager infographics. These STWs were further reviewed by an editorial committee before publication. Presently, 125 STWs pertaining to 23 specialties have been developed. It needs to be ensured that STWs are implemented effectively at all levels and ensure quality healthcare at an affordable cost as part of UHC

Self -assembly of nanoparticles by molecular recognition

Self-assembly of nanoparticles present an excellent tool to bridge the gap between the synthetic bottom up and lithographic top down approaches. Nanoparticles provide versatile tools for materials applications as they feature unique electronic, magnetic and optical properties associated with their core material. The present study utilizes the \u27bricks and mortar\u27 method, where dendrimers and proteins were used as mortar\u27 and nanoparticles as \u27bricks\u27. Non-covalent assembly mechanisms were used in exploring nanocomposite structures such as morphology, spacing, and achieving materials with tunable properties. The nanoparticles were synthesized and assembled with a series of dendrimer generations and various proteins providing a systematic increase in interparticle spacing. The modulation of optical and magnetic properties based upon the type of spacer was studied. In addition, we sought to incorporate inherent protein function into the nanoparticle ensembles, thereby greatly expanding the scope for development of new functional materials. The collective optical or magnetic response of the nanocomposite with tunable properties paves the way for the creation of new novel functional materials

Temporal growth of a three-wave parametric instability in a finite plasma

The temporal growth and spatial dependence of a three-wave backscatter parametric instability are obtained for a weakly inhomogeneous but finite plasma. In contrast to the case of an infinite plasma, a slowly varying phase mismatch does not lead to the saturation of the temporal instability

Tracking of Maximum Power from Wind Using Fuzzy Logic Controller based on PMS

Wind energy has gained a growing worldwide interest due to the nonstop rise in fuel cost. The main aim of the wind-energy system is to extract the maximum power present in the wind stream. In order to extract the highest power, the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm is used. This paper proposes the fuzzy logic MPPT controller to track the maximum power from the wind generation system. The maximum power is achieved based on the rotor speed of the wind system which consists of wind turbine and PMSG. The error and change in error is given as input to the fuzzy logic and its output is connected to the boost converter. The voltage from the dc link is controlled by the Voltage Source Inverter (VSI), and it is placed in grid side converter control. The proposed system is designed and evaluated in MATLAB/SIMULINK. Simulation results show the good dynamic performance of the proposed system

Tracking of Maximum Power from Wind Using Fuzzy Logic Controller based on PMS

Wind energy has gained a growing worldwide interest due to the nonstop rise in fuel cost. The main aim of the wind-energy system is to extract the maximum power present in the wind stream. In order to extract the highest power, the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm is used. This paper proposes the fuzzy logic MPPT controller to track the maximum power from the wind generation system. The maximum power is achieved based on the rotor speed of the wind system which consists of wind turbine and PMSG. The error and change in error is given as input to the fuzzy logic and its output is connected to the boost converter. The voltage from the dc link is controlled by the Voltage Source Inverter (VSI), and it is placed in grid side converter control. The proposed system is designed and evaluated in MATLAB/SIMULINK. Simulation results show the good dynamic performance of the proposed system

Management of alveolar defect with one-piece implant and index of gingival porcelain shade selection in a North Indian Youth

Esthetics is a prime demand for patients who seek anterior replacement of missing teeth. Resorption of the alveolar bone of the edentulous area occurs if left untreated for a long time. It further leads to thinning of the labial cortical plate in the maxillary arch. Few other reasons for narrowing of the alveolar crest are anatomic such as congenitally missing teeth and pathologic, that is dental trauma from tooth avulsion. Nowadays, patients always look for a fixed alternative for the restoration of missing teeth. Other than a conventional fixed partial denture, dental implants are the first choice of treatment. It is one of the difficult tasks for the clinician as well as the dental technician to meet the expectation of the patient when the ridge defect is present in the edentulous area. Extensively invasive procedures such as guided bone regeneration for correction of alveolar defects lead to prolong treatment time and induce psychological trauma to the patient

Rehabilitation of ocular defect: A modified technique to produce corneal prominence

Esthetics is a vital social concern. The loss of any part of the body can be an extremely discouraging occasion in a person's life. Loss of an eye because of tumors, congenital abnormalities, and trauma is one such troublesome situation. Eye prosthesis boosts the morale and makes the life socially acceptable. A correctly placed ocular prosthesis should reestablish the normal opening of the eye, support the eyelids, reestablish a degree of movement, and be satisfactorily held and esthetically satisfying. A customized acrylic eye fulfills all these requirements. In the current article, a new and economic technique was used to duplicate corneal prominence using a clear acrylic shell. The characterization was further done to give a life-like appearance to the eye prostheses