Beyond the immediate content of speech, the voice can provide rich information about a speaker's demographics, including age and gender. Estimating a speaker's age and gender offers a wide range of applications, spanning from voice forensic analysis to personalized advertising, healthcare monitoring, and human-computer interaction. However, pinpointing precise age remains intricate due to age ambiguity. Specifically, utterances from individuals at adjacent ages are frequently indistinguishable. Addressing this, we propose a novel, end-to-end approach that deploys Mozilla's Common Voice dataset to transform raw audio into high-quality feature representations using Wav2Vec2.0 embeddings. These are then channeled into our self-attention-based convolutional neural network (CNN) model. To address age ambiguity, we evaluate the effects of different loss functions such as focal loss and Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence loss. Additionally, we evaluate the accuracy of the estimation at different durations of speech. Experimental results from the Common Voice dataset underscore the efficacy of our approach, showcasing an accuracy of 87% for male speakers, 91% for female speakers and 89% overall accuracy, and an accuracy of 99.1% for gender prediction.
Melanoma, a highly malignant form of skin cancer, affects individuals of all genders and is associated with high mortality rates, especially in advanced stages. The use of tele-dermatology has emerged as a proficient diagnostic approach for skin lesions and is particularly beneficial in rural areas with limited access to dermatologists. However, accurately, and efficiently segmenting melanoma remains a challenging task due to the significant diversity observed in the morphology, pigmentation, and dimensions of cutaneous nevi. To address this challenge, we propose a novel approach called DenseUNet-169 with a dilated convolution encoder-decoder for automatic segmentation of RGB dermascopic images. By incorporating dilated convolution,
... Show MoreThe purpose of this study is to explore whether the adoption of Beyond Budgeting (BB) as a management accounting practice (MAP) contributes to developing intellectual capital (IC) and creating value in Iraqi companies. This requires an understanding of the views of the Iraqi managers about the nature of the information provided by this practice, which may be used to determine whether this information is relevant in the management of IC in the context of Iraq. This research aims also to explore the challenges of the adoption of the BB in planning and controlling IC in Iraq. The study adopts a qualitative approach and an interpretive paradigm. It also adopts a semi-structured interview method of collecting data from executive managers
... Show MoreGeneral propositions have dealt with various indicators and features that frame and describe basic architectural concepts, and from those concepts, the concept of identity will be presented here, which represents the nerve of intellectual vision of the state of architecture development, transformation and change. Due to its deep intellectual basis, it was necessary to study multiple features, especially the achievement feature that was considered a major stage describing the nature of change and shift related to the achievement of concept and its role in the development of the architectural field . &nb
... Show MoreGaining economic policy of exceptional importance in severe unilateral Iraqi economy such as the economy, as oil revenues constitute the center of gravity in the internal and external balances, Economic policy have seen in Iraq beyond 2003 in absentia economic strategic vision and failure in the application of policies to achieve economic development, as there was a disconnect and lack of integration and coordination between macro policies of monetary policy and fiscal policy, especially as if they were floating two policies are not linked by a link
Humanity's relationship with the environment is a delicate balance. Since the industrial revolution, the world's population has grown at an exponential rate, and this has a major environmental effect. Deforestation, pollution, and global climate change are just a few of the negative consequences of population and technological growth. Particulates, Sulphur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen oxides (NOx) are the primary pollutants that harm our health. These contaminants may be directly emitted into the atmosphere (primary pollutants) or formed in the atmosphere from primary pollutants reacting (secondary pollutants. Tropospheric ozone is created When water reacts with volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the presen
... Show MoreAmong the different passive techniques heat pipe heat exchanger (HPHE) seems to be the most effective one for energy saving in heating ventilation and air conditioning system (HVAC). The applications for nanofluids with high conductivity are favorable to increase the thermal performance in HPHE. Even though the nanofluid has the higher heat conduction coefficient that dispels more heat theoretically but the higher concentration will make clustering .Clustering is a problem that must be solved before nanofluids can be considered for long-term practical uses. Results showed that the maximum value of relative power is 0.13 mW at nanofluid compared with other concentrations due to the low density of nanofluid at this concentration. For highe
... Show MoreSpeech is the ability of communication or expression of thoughts among people in spoken words. Human communication via speech is essential since any impairment in this process may have serious social and occupational consequences. Malocclusion is a possible cause of speech impairment in addition to many other etiological factors like hearing loss, neurological disorders, physical disorders, and drug abuse. This article throws light upon the association between speech disorders and malocclusion.
Objectives: to evaluate patient knowledge with hemodialysis and to determine the effectiveness of Self-regulation Fluid Program on Patients with hemodialysis self-efficacy for fluid adherence in Al-Diwaniyah Teaching Hospital.
Methodology: A quasi-experimental design (two group design: pre-test and post-test) was used. This study was conducted in Al-Diwaniya Teaching Hospital for the period from (15th of October 2018 to 20th of May 2019) on a non-probability (purposive) sample consisting of (60 patients) treatment in hemodialysis units. A questionnaire was built as a data collection tool and consisted of four parts:
First part: Demographic characteristics of the pati
... Show More