Initial Development Towards a Trilingual Speech Interface for Financial Information Inquiries

This paper describes our initial effort in developing a trilingual speech interface for financial information inquiries. Our foreign exchange inquiry system consists of: (i) monolingual and trilingual speech recognizers, which receive the user's spoken input in the form of microphone speech; (ii) a real-time data capture component which continuously updates a relational database from a financial data satellite feed; and (iii) a trilingual speech generation component, which generates English and Chinese text based on the raw financial data. The generated text is then transformed into spoken presentations. English text is processed by the FESTIVAL synthesizer system. Chinese text is sent to our syllable-based synthesizer, which employs a concatenative resequencing technique to produce spoken presentations in Putonghua or Cantonese. The speech interface is augmented with a visual display which aims to provide feedback to the user at all times during an interaction. Within the restricted scope of foreign exchange (FOREX), our recognition performance accuracies remain above 93%. Confusions across languages contributed significantly to our recognition errors, but most are confusions between the same currency/country names spoken in different languages. These errors are not detrimental with respect to data retrieval. Our concatenative re-sequencing technique reports the date, time and exchange rates of the input currency pair. A demonstration can be found at http://www.se.cuhk.edu.hk/hccl/demos/.     

A computational method for simulating growth patterns in unicell propagation

The modelling of natural phenomena through the use of computer-generated graphics has attracted much interest recently. It is believed that such methods will lead to new breakthroughs in understanding nature. One of the most popular methods used is the cell automata method, where cells are made to propagate and form cellular patterns according to certain predefined rules. Although much of the work in this area is for recreational purposes, as in the Game of Life, there can be more serious aspects to it. One of these is in the use of such methods to predict and simulate the growth behaviour of cell clusters in real-life situations. In this study, an attempt is made to formalise certain rules for modelling the growth characteristics of unicell populations. The methodology proposed models three fundamental factors: first, the generic propagational characteristics of a cell; second, the effect of adverse factors to growth; and, third, the effect of spatial constraints. The first two factors, relating to the population of a cell colony, can be modelled mathematically; the third factor determines the visual appearance of the cell colony. Patterns resulting from some computational simulations are presented and discussed.     

SPAWNING OF THE ENDANGERED AUSTRALIAN LUNGFISH (NEOCERATODUS FORSTERI) IN A HEAVILY REGULATED RIVER: A PULSE FOR LIFE

The Australian lungfish is an endangered native species currently protected under various state, federal and international agreements. Scarce information on their early life history is available due to the absence of juveniles collected in the wild. This has led to concerns about the sustainability of the species and become a driver for the conservation effort for Australian lungfish. This study aimed to consolidate knowledge on the critical hydraulic habitat requirements of this species within a water resource management context. In this study, spawning of Australian lungfish was found to be a seasonal strategy that is highly reliant on a variable low‐flow regime within riverine habitat. Suitable conditions for spawning were characterized by small flow events in early‐to‐mid spring when water temperatures are between 18 and 28 °C, leading to oviposition on short dense macrophytes in shallow water. Importantly, many of the key environmental factors driving the ecological response are manageable through existing water resource infrastructure. Specifically, releases from water storages within the current distribution of Australian lungfish should mimic the natural inflow and temperature regime within the spawning period, and also provide suitable riverine habitat within projected full supply limits. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

行波技术在配电线路接地故障检测中的应用

针对配电网接地故障运行工况较为复杂,故障选线可靠性和故障测距的准确性,直接影响到配电网运行的安全性问题,结合行波接地故障选线及测距原理,研究了基于行波法的配电线路故障选线及测距技术。将该技术应用到河南油田下二门变电站中,测试结果表明：该故障选线定位测距方法能够准确求出配电网接地故障段的故障参数,并能对故障进行精确定位测距,提高了配电网故障选线排除效率和测距定位的精确性。     

老挝电源BOT项目管理策略研究

∶为高效开发老挝电源BOT项目,文章对老挝电源BOT项目的开发现状及实施步骤进行简介,并针对老挝电源BOT项目存在的风险,进行了策略性的讨论和研究,供同行们参考。     

双孤立波直墙爬高的实验研究

海啸波在近海传播过程中有可能会演化成若干个孤立波组成的波列.为了研究孤立波波列对海岸结构物的作用机理,本文在波浪水槽中进行了双孤立波的直墙爬高实验.通过控制推板式造波机的运动,有效地实现了不同波峰间距双孤立波的造波方法.在复演并验证单孤立波直墙爬高的基础上,完成了不同相对波高、相对波峰间距的双孤立波爬高系列实验,给出了双孤立波平底传播及直墙爬高过程的波面时间序列及爬高过程水线运动时间序列.实验结果表明:对两个等波高的双孤立波而言,当相对波峰间距降到某临界值时,跟随在后孤立波的爬高放大系数将小于先导孤立波的爬高放大系数;当先导孤立波的波高大于跟随孤立波的波高,先导孤立波将更加显著地抑制对跟随孤立波的爬高过程,使得后者的最高爬放大系数显著减小;若在直墙爬高前两个波已明显重叠,即呈双峰瞬态波形,爬高放大系数不会大于具有相同波高的单孤立波的爬高放大系数.     

基于多尺度自适应小波阈值的SAR图像降噪

为了抑制合成孔径雷达(synthetic aperture radar,SAR)成像系统所固有的相干斑噪声,提出一种小波域的多尺度自适应阈值滤波算法.本算法基于BayesShrink阈值,利用多尺度小波系数的局部统计量估计参数和阈值,并结合空域增强Lee算法的思想,平滑均匀区域,保留斑点发育不完全区域.实验结果表明,相对于传统的空域滤波算法、小波软阈值去噪算法和BayesShrink软阈值算法,本算法等效视数(equivalent number of looks,ENL)和边缘保持指数最高,能有效抑制斑点噪声,并且很好地保存了边缘细节。     

大范围动态海浪实时渲染

为实现大范围动态海浪的实时渲染提出了一种高效方法.首先提出一种基于LOD技术的新型网格模型,采用Gerstner模型在GPU(图形处理单元)上实现了海浪的动态模拟和Choppy波的模拟,给出一种凹凸纹理贴图的方法对较远处的海浪渲染实现加速,并利用动画凹凸纹理改善海浪渲染效果;其次通过立方体纹理实现了对天空、太阳的反射效果,运用Phong光照模型实现了海浪的光照并实现了菲涅尔反射;最后采用动画纹理模拟了海浪中的泡沫,并实现了云在海面上投射的阴影等特殊效果.实验结果表明,该方法可以对90 km范围的海浪进行实时交互渲染,并已成功应用于某飞行模拟器中.     

脉冲频率调制LLC串联谐振X光机电源

为了满足X光机电源输出电压调节范围宽的要求,提出了一种全桥LLC串联谐振高频高压电源,并利用仿真软件设计其控制电路,使设计方法更加简单.主电路采用全桥LLC串联谐振、高压变压器、单相双向对称倍压整流电路,从理论上分析系统的工作原理,并建立了LLC谐振变换器的基波等效模型,对主电路的参数进行了设计;在控制电路设计中,借助仿真软件得到补偿前系统近似的开环传递函数,再进行控制器的设计.仿真结果表明,输出电压可以在40~120 kV范围内连续可调,输出电压上升时间短、纹波小,在输出电压跳变过程中,动态调节时间很短,证明了所提出的拓扑和控制电路设计方法的正确性和可靠性.     

电动汽车充电系统三电平PWM整流器的设计

介绍电动汽车充电系统对电网的谐波影响.采用三电平PWM整理器对谐波进行抑制,设计电压电流双闭环的三电平PWM整流电路.分别对输出直流电压和输入电网电压和电流采样,经过PI调节器控制,使输出电压波形稳定,并使电网侧电流和电压达到基本同相,从而减小充电机对电网的谐波影响,提高单位功率因数.