A waveform concatenation technique for text-to-speech synthesis

Designing text-to-speech systems capable of producing natural sounding speech segments in different Indian languages is a challenging and ongoing problem. Due to the large number of possible pronunciations in different Indian languages, a number of speech segments are needed to be stored in the speech database while a concatenative speech synthesis technique is used to achieve highly natural speech segments. However, the large speech database size makes it unusable for small hand held devices or human computer interactive systems with limited storage resources. In this paper, we proposed a fraction-based waveform concatenation technique to produce intelligible speech segments from a small footprint speech database. The results of all the experiments performed shows the effectiveness of the proposed technique in producing intelligible speech segments in different Indian languages even with very less storage and computation overhead compared to the existing syllable-based technique.     

Hybrid algorithms for complete exchange in 2D meshes

Parallel algorithms for several common problems such as sorting and the FFT involve a personalized exchange of data among all the processors. Past approaches to doing complete exchange have taken one of two broad approaches: direct exchange or the indirect message-combining approaches. While combining approaches reduce the number of message startups, direct exchange minimizes the volume of data transmitted. This paper presents a family of hybrid algorithms for wormhole-routed 2D meshes that can effectively utilize the complementary strengths of these two approaches to complete exchange. The performance of hybrid algorithms using Cyclic Exchange and Scott's Direct Exchange are studied using analytical models, simulation, and implementation on a Cray T3D system. The results show that hybrids achieve lower completion times than either pure algorithm for a range of mesh sizes, data block sizes, and message startup costs. It is also demonstrated that barriers may be used to enhance performance by reducing message contention, whether or not the target system provides hardware support for barrier synchronization. The analytical models are shown useful in selecting the optimum hybrid for any given combination of system parameters (mesh size, message startup time, flit transfer time, and barrier cost) and the problem parameter (data block size)     

Designing communication strategies for heterogeneous parallel systems

This paper explores the suitability of the emerging passive star-coupled optical interconnection using wavelength division multiplexing as the system interconnect to provide high bandwidth (Gbits/sec) communication demanded by heterogeneous systems. Several different communication strategies (combinations of communication topologies and protocols) are investigated under a representative master-slave computational model. The interplay between system speed, network speed, task granularity, and degree of parallelism is studied using both analytical modeling and simulations. It is shown that a hierarchical ALOHA-based communication strategy between the master and the slaves, implemented on top of the passive star-coupled network, leads to a considerable reduction in channel contention and provides 50–80% reduction in task completion time for applications with medium to high degrees of coarse grain parallelism. Comparable reduction in channel contention is also shown to be achieved by using tunable acoustooptic filters at master nodes.     

Distributed and robust parameter estimation of IIR systems using incremental particle swarm optimization

In recent years because of substantial use of wireless sensor network the distributed estimation has attracted the attention of many researchers. Two popular learning algorithms: incremental least mean square (ILMS) and diffusion least mean square (DLMS) have been reported for distributed estimation using the data collected from sensor nodes. But these algorithms, being derivative based, have a tendency of providing local minima solution particularly for minimization of multimodal cost function. Hence for problems like distributed parameters estimation of IIR systems, alternative distributed algorithms are required to be developed. Keeping this in view the present paper proposes two population based incremental particle swarm optimization (IPSO) algorithms for estimation of parameters of noisy IIR systems. But the proposed IPSO algorithms provide poor performance when the measured data is contaminated with outliers in the training samples. To alleviate this problem the paper has proposed a robust distributed algorithm (RDIPSO) for IIR system identification task. The simulation results of benchmark IIR systems demonstrate that the proposed algorithms provide excellent identification performance in all cases even when the training samples are contaminated with outliers.     

Wild edible fruit diversity and its significance in the livelihood of indigenous tribals: Evidence from eastern India

A number of wild plants, used by rural and tribal populations and contributing significantly to their livelihood and food security have escaped recognition and scientific inquiry. Their distribution, conservation, mode of harvest by locals and optimal use require region-specific assessment in order to integrate them into developmental interventions. This study analyzed the collection, consumption, sale and income from edible forest fruits in 49 tribal villages spread over five districts of Orissa State in eastern India. Density, dominance and diversity of species yielding wild fruit were measured by studying ecological parameters in the sample plots. We estimated an average of 48 fruit plants per hectare of deciduous forests. Fifty-six wild edible fruit species belonging to 40 genera in 26 families were recorded in the study region, many of which have multiple uses. Indigenous fruits formed part of the family diet with average annual consumption of 73 kg per household. Sale of wild fruits contributed 15 % of income for tribal households. Despite their good knowledge of indigenous fruits, the tribal populations have not adopted fruit tree farming which would enhance their nutrition and income.     

Recent advances in indium metallurgy: A review

The by-products of zinc refineries are used as the primary mineral resources for the commercial production of indium. The discarded LCDs containing adequate amount of indium is rather worth as its secondary resources compared to the by-products of zinc refineries. Mining and recycling rates of indium, respectively from minerals and waste LCDs are in progress to meet its huge demand. Recycling of the LCDs has been dominating over mining, as presently 480t of indium are produced annually from mining, however, that of 650t annually from recycling. Different aspects of the extractive metallurgy of indium are summarized in this review paper.