High quality voice conversion using prosodic and high-resolution spectral features

Voice conversion methods have advanced rapidly over the last decade. Studies have shown that speaker characteristics are captured by spectral feature as well as various prosodic features. Most existing conversion methods focus on the spectral feature as it directly represents the timbre characteristics, while some conversion methods have focused only on the prosodic feature represented by the fundamental frequency. In this paper, a comprehensive framework using deep neural networks to convert both timbre and prosodic features is proposed. The timbre feature is represented by a high-resolution spectral feature. The prosodic features include F0, intensity and duration. It is well known that DNN is useful as a tool to model high-dimensional features. In this work, we show that DNN initialized by our proposed autoencoder pretraining yields good quality DNN conversion models. This pretraining is tailor-made for voice conversion and leverages on autoencoder to capture the generic spectral shape of source speech. Additionally, our framework uses segmental DNN models to capture the evolution of the prosodic features over time. To reconstruct the converted speech, the spectral feature produced by the DNN model is combined with the three prosodic features produced by the DNN segmental models. Our experimental results show that the application of both prosodic and high-resolution spectral features leads to quality converted speech as measured by objective evaluation and subjective listening tests.     

Automatic composition of broadcast sports video

This study examines an automatic broadcast soccer video composition system. The research is important as the ability to automatically compose broadcast sports video will not only improve broadcast video generation efficiency, but also provides the possibility to customize sports video broadcasting. We present a novel approach to the two major issues required in the system’s implementation, specifically the camera view selection/switching module and the automatic replay generation module. In our implementation, we use multi-modal framework to perform video content analysis, event and event boundary detection from the raw unedited main/sub-camera captures. This framework explores the possible cues using mid-level representations to bridge the gap between low-level features and high-level semantics. The video content analysis results are utilized for camera view selection/switching in the generated video composition, and the event detection results and mid-level representations are used to generate replays which are automatically inserted into the broadcast soccer video. Our experimental results are promising and found to be comparable to those generated by broadcast professionals.     

THZ531 Induces a State of BRCAness in Multiple Myeloma Cells: Synthetic Lethality with Combination Treatment of THZ 531 with DNA Repair Inhibitors

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a hematological disease marked by abnormal growth of B cells in bone marrow. Inherent chromosomal instability and DNA damage are major hallmarks of MM, which implicates an aberrant DNA repair mechanism. Studies have implicated a role for CDK12 in the control of expression of DNA damage response genes. In this study, we examined the effect of a small molecule inhibitor of CDK12–THZ531 on MM cells. Treatment of MM cells with THZ531 led to heightened cell death accompanied by an extensive effect on gene expression changes. In particular, we observed downregulation of genes involved in DNA repair pathways. With this insight, we extended our study to identify synthetic lethal mechanisms that could be exploited for the treatment of MM cells. Combination of THZ531 with either DNA-PK inhibitor (KU-0060648) or PARP inhibitor (Olaparib) led to synergistic cell death. In addition, combination treatment of THZ531 with Olaparib significantly reduced tumor burden in animal models. Our findings suggest that using a CDK12 inhibitor in combination with other DNA repair inhibitors may establish an effective therapeutic regimen to benefit myeloma patients.     

混流式水轮机转轮内三元空化流场的预测

本文提出了混流式水轮机转轮内三元空化流场的数值分析方法和一种新的空穴模型，实现了水轮机转轮内三元空化流场和叶片上三元空化区域的预测.通过比较岩滩水电站模型转轮的空化试验结果及其三元空化流场的数值分析结果，可以证明：基于此种准三元空化流动理论的转轮内空化流场分析结果具有定量上的准确性，具有工程实用价值。     

一种改进型针状微波辐射器的电流分布模型

本文是介绍改进型针状微波辐射器纵向电流分布的一种计算方法。该微波辐射器用来对脑瘤等癌症进行插入式热疗。它与传统到针状辐射器不同的是，其前部的外状导体被一个圆锥所替代。文中利用传输线等效模型对其编程计算，求出了沿线的电流分布，将这一结果与传统型辐射器的电流分布进行了比较，证实了纵向电流分布正如我们所期望的那样向前发生了移动，这种改变将获得热分布产生类似的前移，从而提高了针状辐射器的临床应用价值。文中给出了辐射器在不同插入深度、负载阻抗和设计尺寸下的电流分布曲线，以便在实践中对这些参数优化选择。     

Adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with resected Dukes' C and high-risk B2 colon cancer with fluorouracil and levamisole

Carcinoma of the large bowel is the second leading cause of cancer mortality in Singapore. Although the great majority of patients are discovered at a stage where resection with curative intent is possible, almost half of the patients afflicted will die of it. The combination of 5-fluorouracil + levamisole used in patients with curatively resected high risk Dukes B2 and all Dukes' C colon cancers has been shown to reduce cancer recurrence rate and improve overall survival. Since 1990 adjuvant chemotherapy has been recommended for this group of patients. This report describes patients treated in Singapore, their toxicities and their outcome. A total of 341 patients were treated between 1990 and 1996. Treatment compliance was 71.8%. Toxicity was moderate with mainly grade 1-2 nausea and vomiting, diarrhoea, stomatitis, alopecia, and neutropenia. There was 1 treatment-related death. Median recurrence-free interval was 81 months and median survival was not reached at 90 months. This regimen is tolerable. Until further randomised reports comparing 5-fluorouracil + levamisole to other combinations are available, this combination chemotherapy is recommended to patients after surgical resection of the high risk Dukes' B2 and Dukes' C colon cancer to reduce cancer recurrence and improve overall survival.     

如何设计兼具隔离效果和安全性的医疗设备

使用交流电源的医疗设备,可能会因不恰当的接地和电气隔离造成漏电,让患者和医疗人员暴露在危险之下,同时漏电也可能影响到邻近其它医疗设备的性能.对医疗设备来说,EMC是一个相当重要的条件,从2005年11月开始,医疗设备必须符合国际电工委员会(IEC)更新后的IEC 60601-1-2:2001EMC标准.     

Virtual-ground sensing techniques for a 49-ns/200-MHz access time 1.8-V 256-Mb 2-bit-per-cell flash memory

Fast and accurate read operation in 1.8-V 2-bit-per-cell virtual-ground flash memories requires techniques to substantially reduce the read margin loss due to the side-leakage current and the complementary-bit disturbance. The read margin loss caused by the combination effect of these two disturbance mechanisms is serious enough to eliminate the read margin window, which is already small when the power supply voltage is about 1.8 V and when a memory cell stores 2 bits. This paper introduces for the first time the sense current recovery technique to counteract the side-leakage current effect and the differential feedback cascoded bitline control technique to minimize the complementary-bit disturbance. A 1.8-V 256-Mb 2-bit-per-cell virtual-ground flash memory employing the two techniques has been integrated using 0.13-/spl mu/m CMOS technology. These two sensing techniques are essential for the memory to achieve 49-ns initial read access and 200-MHz internal burst read access. The die size is 52 mm/sup 2/ and the cell size is 0.121 /spl mu/m/sup 2/.     

Permeability of polyimides derived from non-coplanar diamines and 4,4′-(hexafluoroisopropylidene)diphthalic anhydride

A series of polyimides including a non-coplanar moiety were synthesized in order to investigate the effect on gas permeability and selectivity. The gas permeation properties of He, H₂, O₂, N₂, CH₄ and CO₂ were measured using a constant-volume method. Only 6FDA-terphenyl consisting of laterally attached phenyl groups shows a substantial increase because its terphenyl moiety is a rigid structure with a high aspect ratio. The order of permeability increase from 6FDA-phenyl to 6FDA-terphenyl is consistent with the calculated fraction free volume and measured permittivity. It is observed that the most gain in permeability for 6FDA-terphenyl polyimide arises from the enhancement in apparent diffusion coefficient, while the permeability increase for 6FDA-biphenyl is mainly due to the increase in solubility. A relationship of diffusivity vs. gas penetrant size as well as gas solubility vs. critical temperature of gas penetrant was also investigated.