Pruning Self-Attention for Zero-Shot Multi-Speaker Text-to-Speech

For personalized speech generation, a neural text-to-speech (TTS) model must be successfully implemented with limited data from a target speaker. To this end, the baseline TTS model needs to be amply generalized to out-of-domain data (i.e., target speaker's speech). However, approaches to address this out-of-domain generalization problem in TTS have yet to be thoroughly studied. In this work, we propose an effective pruning method for a transformer known as sparse attention, to improve the TTS model's generalization abilities. In particular, we prune off redundant connections from self-attention layers whose attention weights are below the threshold. To flexibly determine the pruning strength for searching optimal degree of generalization, we also propose a new differentiable pruning method that allows the model to automatically learn the thresholds. Evaluations on zero-shot multi-speaker TTS verify the effectiveness of our method in terms of voice quality and speaker similarity.Comment: INTERSPEECH 202

The Hβ index as an age indicator of old stellar systems: The effects of horizontal-branch stars

The strength of the Hβ index is computed for the integrated spectra of model globular clusters from the evolutionary population synthesis. For the first time, these models take into account the detailed systematic variation of horizontal-branch (HB) morphology with age and metallicity. Our models show that the Hβ index is significantly affected by the presence of blue HB stars. Because of the contribution from blue HB stars, the Hβ does not monotonically decrease as metallicity increases at a given age. Instead, it reaches a maximum strength when the distribution of HB stars is centered around 9500 K, the temperature at which the Hβ index becomes strongest. Our models indicate that the strength of the Hβ index increases as much as 0.75 Å because of the presence of blue HB stars. The comparison of the recent Keck observations of the globular cluster system in the Milky Way with those in the giant elliptical galaxies NGC 1399 and M87 shows a systematic shift in the Hβ-metallicity plane. Our models suggest that this systematic difference is explained if the mean age of globular cluster systems in giant elliptical galaxies is several billion years older than the Galactic counterpart. Further observations of globular cluster systems in the external galaxies from the large ground-based telescopes and space UV facilities will enable us to clarify whether this difference is indeed due to the age difference or whether other explanations are also possible

BIOMECHANICAL TRAITS ANALYSIS WHEN PERFORMING OF JUDO UCHIMATA BY POSTURE AND VOLUNTARY RESISTANCE LEVELS OF UKE

The purpose of this study was to analyze the biomechanical traits variables when performing uchimata (inner thigh reaping throw) by voluntary resistance levels (VRL) and two postures of uke (defender, receiver) in Judo. The postures of uke were shizenhontai (straight natural posture:NP) and jigohontai (straight defensive posture:DP), VRL of uke were 0% and 100%, respectively. The biomechanical variables were temporal (total time-required: TR), postures and COG during performing uchimata. It's important for jUdoists to prepare for individual analysis. prescription and countermeasures because they have experienced several variables when performing techniques according to opponent's postures and VRL in biomechanical aspects

Thermoelectric properties of nanoporous three-dimensional graphene networks

We propose three dimensional-graphene nanonetworks (3D-GN) with pores in the range of 10 similar to 20 nm as a potential candidate for thermoelectric materials. The 3D-GN has a low thermal conductivity of 0.90 W/mK @773 K and a maximum electrical conductivity of 6660 S/m @773 K. Our results suggest a straightforward way to individually control two interdependent parameters, sigma and kappa, in the nanoporous graphene structures to ultimately improve the figure of merit value.open

Automatic Internal Stray Light Calibration of AMCW Coaxial Scanning LiDAR Using GMM and PSO

In this paper, an automatic calibration algorithm is proposed to reduce the depth error caused by internal stray light in amplitude-modulated continuous wave (AMCW) coaxial scanning light detection and ranging (LiDAR). Assuming that the internal stray light generated in the process of emitting laser is static, the amplitude and phase delay of internal stray light are estimated using the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). Specifically, the pixel positions in a raw signal amplitude map of calibration checkboard are segmented by GMM with two clusters considering the dark and bright image pattern. The loss function is then defined as L1-norm of difference between mean depths of two amplitude-segmented clusters. To avoid overfitting at a specific distance in PSO process, the calibration check board is actually measured at multiple distances and the average of corresponding L1 loss functions is chosen as the actual loss. Such loss is minimized by PSO to find the two optimal target parameters: the amplitude and phase delay of internal stray light. According to the validation of the proposed algorithm, the original loss is reduced from tens of centimeters to 3.2 mm when the measured distances of the calibration checkboard are between 1 m and 4 m. This accurate calibration performance is also maintained in geometrically complex measured scene. The proposed internal stray light calibration algorithm in this paper can be used for any type of AMCW coaxial scanning LiDAR regardless of its optical characteristics

Highly precise AMCW time-of-flight scanning sensor based on digital-parallel demodulation

In this paper, a novel amplitude-modulated continuous wave (AMCW) time-of-flight (ToF) scanning sensor based on digital-parallel demodulation is proposed and demonstrated in the aspect of distance measurement precision. Since digital-parallel demodulation utilizes a high-amplitude demodulation signal with zero-offset, the proposed sensor platform can maintain extremely high demodulation contrast. Meanwhile, as all cross correlated samples are calculated in parallel and in extremely short integration time, the proposed sensor platform can utilize a 2D laser scanning structure with a single photo detector, maintaining a moderate frame rate. This optical structure can increase the received optical SNR and remove the crosstalk of image pixel array. Based on these measurement properties, the proposed AMCW ToF scanning sensor shows highly precise 3D depth measurement performance. In this study, this precise measurement performance is explained in detail. Additionally, the actual measurement performance of the proposed sensor platform is experimentally validated under various conditions

A comparative study on experimental and simulation responses of CR-39 to neutron spectra from a 252Cf source

A simulation of the interaction of neutrons emitted from a 252Cf source with a CR-39 detector is presented in this paper. Elastic and inelastic neutron interactions occur with the constituent materials of the CR-39 detector. Inelastic scatterings only consider (n, a) and (n, p) reactions. Fast neutrons tracks are, mainly, produced by recoil particle tracks in the plastic nuclear track detector as a result of the elastic scattering reaction of neutrons with the constituent materials of the solid-state nuclear track detectors, especially hydrogen nuclei. The energy of the neutron, incident position, direction, and type of interaction were sampled by the Monte Carlo method. The energy threshold, critical angle and scattering angle to the detector surface normal were the most important factors considered in our calculations. The energy deposited per neutron mass unit was calculated. The angular response was determined by both Monte Carlo simulation and experimental results. The number of visible proton tracks and energy deposited per neutron per visible track were calculated and simulated. The threshold energy of the recoil proton as a function of the thickness and incident proton angles was measured by the etchable range of protons at scattering angles, along with the shape and diameter of the track. Experimental and simulations result were in good agreement