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.
This research adopts the estimation of mass transfer coefficient in batch packed bed distillation column as function of physical properties, liquid to vapour molar rates ratio (L / V), relative volatility (α), ratio of vapour and liquid diffusivities (DV / DL), ratio of vapour and liquid densities (ρV / ρL), ratio of vapour and liquid viscosities (μV/ μL).
The experiments are done using binary systems, (Ethanol Water), (Methanol Water), (Methanol Ethanol), (Benzene Hexane), (Benzene Toluene). Statistical program (multiple regression analysis) is used for estimating the overall mass transfer coefficient of vapour and liquid phases (KOV and KOL) in a correlation which represented the data fairly well.
KOV = 3.3 * 10-10
... Show MoreProsthetic is an artificial tool that replaces a member of the human frame that is absent because of ailment, damage, or distortion. The current research activities in Iraq draw interest to the upper limb discipline because of the growth in the number of amputees. Thus, it becomes necessary to increase researches in this subject to help in reducing the struggling patients. This paper describes the design and development of a prosthesis for people able and wear them from persons who have amputation in the hands. This design is composed of a hand with five fingers moving by means of a gearbox ism mechanism. The design of this artificial hand has 5 degrees of freedom. This artificial hand works based on the principle of &n
... Show MoreIn this research velocity of moving airplane from its recorded digital sound is introduced. The data of sound file is sliced into several frames using overlapping partitions. Then the array of each frame is transformed from time domain to frequency domain using Fourier Transform (FT). To determine the characteristic frequency of the sound, a moving window mechanics is used, the size of that window is made linearly proportional with the value of the tracked frequency. This proportionality is due to the existing linear relationship between the frequency and its Doppler shift. An algorithm was introduced to select the characteristic frequencies, this algorithm allocates the frequencies which satisfy the Doppler relation, beside that the tra
... Show MoreBendable concrete, also known as Engineered Cementitious Composite (ECC) is a type of ultra-ductile cementitious composites reinforced with fibres to control the width of cracks. It has the ability to enhance concrete flexibility by withstanding strains of 3% and higher. The properties of bendable concrete mixes (compressive strength, flexural strength, and drying shrinkage) are here assessed after the incorporation of supplementary cementitious materials, silica fume, polymer fibres, and the use of ordinary Portland cement (O.P.C) and Portland limestone cement (IL). Mixes with Portland limestone cement show lower drying shrinkage and lower compressive and flexural strength than mixes with ordinary Portland cement, due to the ratio o
... Show MoreSmear zone is usually formed around the prefabricated vertical drains (PVD’s) due to mandrel driving. The geotechnical properties of the soil in this zone exhibit significant changes that affect the performance of the PVD’s. The most relevant property in this respect is the coefficient of permeability. So far, no serious attention is paid to investigate the effects of shearing under large shear strains on the geotechnical properties of the soft soil in Fao region. In this study, an extensive laboratory testing program was conducted to assess the characteristics of the smear zone with an emphasis on the permeability coefficient of Fao soft soil. The results show that the permeability of the smear zone is about 70% of
... Show MoreDevelopments are carried out to enhance the performance of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT). This paper studies the performance of the ducted wind turbine with convergent duct (DAWT). Basically, the duct technique is utilized to provide the desired wind velocity facing the turbine. Methodology was developed to estimate the decisive performance parameter and to present the effect of the convergent duct with different inlet angles. The ducted wind turbine was analyzed and simulated using MATLAB software and numerically using ANSYS-Fluent 17.2. Result of both approaches were presented and showed good closeness for the two cases of covering angles 12 and 20 respectively. Results also showed that the convergent duct with an inlet angl
... Show MoreThis study concerns the removal of a trihydrate antibiotic (Amoxicillin) from synthetically contaminated water by adsorption on modified bentonite. The bentonite was modified using hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (HTAB), which turned it from a hydrophilic to a hydrophobic material. The effects of different parameters were studied in batch experiments. These parameters were contact time, solution pH, agitation speed, initial concentration (C0) of the contaminant, and adsorbent dosage. Maximum removal of amoxicillin (93 %) was achieved at contact time = 240 min, pH = 10, agitation speed = 200 rpm, initial concentration = 30 ppm, and adsorbent dosage = 3 g bentonite per 1L of pollutant solution. The characterization of the adsorbent, modi
... Show MorePulsatile drug delivery systems are time-controlled dosage forms which are designed to release the active pharmaceutical ingredient after a predetermined lag time to synchronize the disease circadian rhythm. A migraine shows circadian rhythm with a marked increase in attacks between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m.
Sumatriptan is a selective agonist at serotonin (5-Hydroxy tryptamine1 (5-HT1))receptors, is an effective treatment for acute migraine attacks.
The aim of this work is to prepare time-controlled press-coated tablet with a lag time of 5.45 hrs.
Six formulas of fast dissolving core tablets and three formulas of press-coated tablets were prepared by using direct compression method using different variables to prepa
... Show MoreTwo dimensional meso-scale concrete modeling was used in finite element analysis of plain concrete beam subjected to bending. The plane stress 4-noded quadrilateral elements were utilized to model coarse aggregate, cement mortar. The effect of aggregate fraction distribution, and pores percent of the total area – resulting from air voids entrapped in concrete during placement on the behavior of plain concrete beam in flexural was detected. Aggregate size fractions were randomly distributed across the profile area of the beam. Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) was employed to treat the discontinuities problems result from double phases of concrete and cracking that faced during the finite element analysis of concrete beam. Crac
... Show MoreMolecular barcoding was widely recognized as a powerful tool for the identification of organisms during the past decade; the aim of this study is to use the molecular approach to identify the diatoms by using the environmental DNA. The diatom specimens were taken from Tigris River. The environmental DNA(e DNA) extraction and analysis of sequences using the Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) method showed the highest percentage of epipelic diatom genera including Achnanthidium minutissimum (Kützing) Czarnecki, 1994 (21.1%), Cocconeis placentula Ehrenberg, 1838 (21.3%) and Nitzschia palea (Kützing) W. Smith, 1856 (16.3%).
Five species of diatoms: Achnanthidiu
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