Voice Activity Detection (VAD) is considered as an important pre-processing step in speech processing systems such as speech enhancement, speech recognition, gender and age identification. VAD helps in reducing the time required to process speech data and to improve final system accuracy by focusing the work on the voiced part of the speech. An automatic technique for VAD using Fuzzy-Neuro technique (FN-AVAD) is presented in this paper. The aim of this work is to alleviate the problem of choosing the best threshold value in traditional VAD methods and achieves automaticity by combining fuzzy clustering and machine learning techniques. Four features are extracted from each speech segment, which are short term energy, zero-crossing rate, autocorrelation, and log energy. A modified version of fuzzy C-Means is then used to cluster speech segments into three clusters; two clusters for voice and one for unvoiced. After that, three feed forward neural networks are trained to adjust their weights, in which each network represents one cluster. To make the final decision regarding the class type of a given speech segment, the membership degrees of this segment in all clusters along with neural networks' decisions are given to a defuzzification step which finally gives the class type of that segment. The proposed FN-AVAD is tested on the public multimodal emotion database, Surrey AudioVisual Expressed Emotion (SAVEE), and the error rate was 2.08%. The achieved results are comparable to the results achieved by the current published works in the literature.
The present report depicts a convenient route for the synthesis of new N-Mannich bases from Ciprofloxacin (CP) drug. The synthetic route started from the reaction CP drug with 2-mercaptobenzimidazole to give compound [A], the N-Mannich bases analogs of CP [A1-A8] were prepared by the reaction of CP derivative [A] with primary and secondary amine derivatives. The structure of the analogs was confirmed by spectral (1 HNMR and FTIR) and analytical data. This study also includes calculations of total energy and electrostatic potential. In addition, this research aimed to determine the effects of CP derivatives on the activity of various transferase enzymes in sera, such as serum glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) and Glutamate Pyruvate Tra
... Show MoreBackground: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic and systemic autoimmune disease that is characterized by severe synovial inflammation, cartilage erosion, bone loss, and generalized vasculopathy. Although the immunologic mechanism of RA is still unclear, it is now thought to be a primarily Th17-driven disease. Along with other factors, IL-23 stimulates the expansion of Th17 cells from naive CD4+ T cells.
Objective: The objective of this study is to assess the circulating levels of interleukin (IL)-23 in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and determine the correlation between plasma/serum IL-23 levels and disease activity. So, we performed a systematic review with meta-analysis comparing
... Show MoreThis paper presents a new Azo dye that was prepared from the reaction of the Benzene-1,2-diamine and 1-(2,4,6-Trihydroxy-phenyl)-ethanone, Azo dye was used to prepare a new series of complexes with general formula: [Co2(H4L) Cl2(H2O)4] and [M2(H4L)Cl4(H2O)2] (M= Cr+3, Fe+3,Rh+3 and Ru+3). The prepared materials were different measurements including to infrared, ultraviolet-visible, and mass spectrometry, as well as thermo gravimetric analysis, differential calorimetry, and elemental analysis. Conductivity, magnetic susceptibility, metal content, and chlorine content of the complexes were also assessed. The complexes prepared from the dye were used to determine their ability to inhibit free radicals by measuring their antioxidant capacity us
... Show MoreThe research aims to shed light on the importance of forensic accounting and its impact on the outcome of the activity of the Iraqi general insurance company by winning the lawsuits filed against the company because the forensic accountant (the judicial expert) possesses the ability to interpret and analyze the data. The research community represents the insurance companies in Iraq. Iraqi insurance, and the researchers adopted the descriptive approach in covering the theoretical aspect and the deductive approach in covering the practical side, depending on the financial statements of the Iraqi insurance company for the years of research.
One of the most important conclusions reached by the researchers was that forensic accounting
... Show MoreA simple physical technique was used in this study to create stable and cost-effective copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles from pure copper metal using the pulsed laser ablation technique. The synthesis of crystalline CuO nanoparticles was confirmed by various analytical techniques such as particle concentration measurement using atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), the energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) to determine the crystal size and identify of the crystal structure of the prepared particles. The main characteristic diffraction peaks of the three samples were consistent. The corresponding 2θ is also consistent, and the cytotoxicity of the nanoparticles was
... Show Moreantimicrobial solutions against Coliforms, E. coli O157: H7, yeasts and molds were evaluated by agar well diffusion method. Chitosan (CH) exhibited best antimicrobial activity against the treated microorganisms at concentration of (5%) with contact time for 6hrs at refrigeration temperature (4ÚC), zones of inhibition for (GA) and (CH) for each solution alone ranging from (0 to 10 mm), chitosan solution (CH) exhibited both antibacterial and antifungal activities, Gum Arabic washing solution showed significant antibacterial activity (P < 0.05) against the microorganisms at concentration (15%), without inhibitory effect against E. coli O157:H7 at concentration (10%), in the current study the results confirmed that (15%) (w/v) of GA and 5%
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