Assessment of Severe Apnoea through Voice Analysis, Automatic Speech, and Speaker Recognition Techniques

This study is part of an ongoing collaborative effort between the medical and the signal processing communities to promote research on applying standard Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) techniques for the automatic diagnosis of patients with severe obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). Early detection of severe apnoea cases is important so that patients can receive early treatment. Effective ASR-based detection could dramatically cut medical testing time. Working with a carefully designed speech database of healthy and apnoea subjects, we describe an acoustic search for distinctive apnoea voice characteristics. We also study abnormal nasalization in OSA patients by modelling vowels in nasal and nonnasal phonetic contexts using Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) pattern recognition on speech spectra. Finally, we present experimental findings regarding the discriminative power of GMMs applied to severe apnoea detection. We have achieved an 81% correct classification rate, which is very promising and underpins the interest in this line of inquiry.

Real-Time implementation of a blind authentication method using self-synchronous speech watermarking

A blind speech watermarking scheme that meets hard real-time deadlines is presented and implemented. In addition, one of the key issues in these block-oriented watermarking techniques is to preserve the synchronization. Namely, to recover the exact position of each block in the mark extract process. In fact, the presented scheme can be split up into two distinguished parts, the synchronization and the information mark methods. The former is embedded into the time domain and it is fast enough to be run meeting real-time requirements. The latter contains the authentication information and it is embedded into the wavelet domain. The synchronization and information mark techniques are both tunable in order to allow a con gurable method. Thus, capacity, transparency and robustness can be con gured depending on the needs. It makes the scheme useful for professional applications, such telephony authentication or even sending information throw radio applications.

Oleoyl lysophosphatidic acid: a new mediator of emotional behavior in rats.

The role of lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) in the control of emotional behavior remains to be determined. We analyzed the effects of the central administration of 1-oleoyl-LPA (LPA 18∶1) in rats tested for food consumption and anxiety-like and depression-like behaviors. For this purpose, the elevated plus-maze, open field, Y maze, forced swimming and food intake tests were performed. In addition, c-Fos expression in the dorsal periaqueductal gray matter (DPAG) was also determined. The results revealed that the administration of LPA 18∶1 reduced the time in the open arms of the elevated plus-maze and induced hypolocomotion in the open field, suggesting an anxiogenic-like phenotype. Interestingly, these effects were present following LPA 18∶1 infusion under conditions of novelty but not under habituation conditions. In the forced swimming test, the administration of LPA 18∶1 dose-dependently increased depression-like behavior, as evaluated according to immobility time. LPA treatment induced no effects on feeding. However, the immunohistochemical analysis revealed that LPA 18∶1 increased c-Fos expression in the DPAG. The abundant expression of the LPA1 receptor, one of the main targets for LPA 18∶1, was detected in this brain area, which participates in the control of emotional behavior, using immunocytochemistry. These findings indicate that LPA is a relevant transmitter potentially involved in normal and pathological emotional responses, including anxiety and depression.

1-Oleoyl lysophosphatidic acid: a new mediator of emotional behavior in rats.

The role of lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) in the control of emotional behavior remains to be determined. We analyzed the effects of the central administration of 1-oleoyl-LPA (LPA 18∶1) in rats tested for food consumption and anxiety-like and depression-like behaviors. For this purpose, the elevated plus-maze, open field, Y maze, forced swimming and food intake tests were performed. In addition, c-Fos expression in the dorsal periaqueductal gray matter (DPAG) was also determined. The results revealed that the administration of LPA 18∶1 reduced the time in the open arms of the elevated plus-maze and induced hypolocomotion in the open field, suggesting an anxiogenic-like phenotype. Interestingly, these effects were present following LPA 18∶1 infusion under conditions of novelty but not under habituation conditions. In the forced swimming test, the administration of LPA 18∶1 dose-dependently increased depression-like behavior, as evaluated according to immobility time. LPA treatment induced no effects on feeding. However, the immunohistochemical analysis revealed that LPA 18∶1 increased c-Fos expression in the DPAG. The abundant expression of the LPA1 receptor, one of the main targets for LPA 18∶1, was detected in this brain area, which participates in the control of emotional behavior, using immunocytochemistry. These findings indicate that LPA is a relevant transmitter potentially involved in normal and pathological emotional responses, including anxiety and depression.

Embedding Emotional Context in Recommender Systems

Emotions are crucial for user's decision making in recommendation processes. We first introduce ambient recommender systems, which arise from the analysis of new trends on the exploitation of the emotional context in the next generation of recommender systems. We then explain some results of these new trends in real-world applications through the smart prediction assistant (SPA) platform in an intelligent learning guide with more than three million users. While most approaches to recommending have focused on algorithm performance. SPA makes recommendations to users on the basis of emotional information acquired in an incremental way. This article provides a cross-disciplinary perspective to achieve this goal in such recommender systems through a SPA platform. The methodology applied in SPA is the result of a bunch of technology transfer projects for large real-world rccommender systems

On the origin and scope of the second language speech production disadvatage

Los hablantes bilingües tienen un acceso al léxico más lento y menos robusto que los monolingües, incluso cuando hablan en su lengua materna y dominante. Este fenómeno, comúnmente llamado “la desventaja bilingüe” también se observa en hablantes de una segunda lengua en comparación con hablantes de una primera lengua. Una causa que posiblemente contribuya a estas desventajas es el uso de control inhibitorio durante la producción del lenguaje: la inhibición de palabras coactivadas de la lengua actualmente no en uso puede prevenir intrusiones de dicha lengua, pero al mismo tiempo ralentizar la producción del lenguaje. El primer objetivo de los estudios descritos en este informe era testear esta hipótesis mediante diferentes predicciones generadas por teorías de control inhibitorio del lenguaje. Un segundo objetivo era investigar la extensión de la desventaja bilingüe dentro y fuera de la producción de palabras aisladas, así como avanzar en el conocimiento de las variables que la modulan. En lo atingente al primer objetivo, la evidencia obtenida es incompatible con un control inhibitorio global, desafiando la idea de mecanismos específicos en el hablante bilingüe utilizados para la selección léxica. Esto implica que una explicación común para el control de lenguaje y la desventaja bilingüe en el acceso al léxico es poco plausible. En cuanto al segundo objetivo, los resultados muestran que (a) la desventaja bilingüe no tiene un impacto al acceso a la memoria; (b) la desventaja bilingüe extiende a la producción del habla conectada; y (c) similitudes entre lenguas a diferentes niveles de representación así como la frecuencia de uso son factores que modulan la desventaja bilingüe.   

Speech and oromotor deficits of epileptic origin in benign partial epilepsy of childhood with rolandic spikes (BPERS). Relationship to the acquired aphasia-epilepsy syndrome.

The authors report three children who suffered temporary oromotor or speech disturbances as focal epileptic manifestations within the frame of benign partial epilepsy of childhood with rolandic spikes and review similar cases described in the literature. The deficit can occur as an initial symptom of the disorder without visible epileptic seizures and interferes in a variable way with simple voluntary oromotor functions or complex movements including speech production, depending on the exact location and spread of the discharging epileptic focus around the perisylvian region. The most severe deficit produces the anterior operculum syndrome. More subtle non-linguistic deficits such as intermittent drooling, oromotor apraxia or dysfluency, as well as linguistic ones involving phonologic production, can occur. The rapidity of onset, progression and recovery of the deficit is very variable as well as its duration and presumably reflects the degree of epileptic activity. In some cases, rapid improvement with antiepileptic medication occurs and coincidence between the paroxysmal EEG activity (which is usually bilateral) and the functional deficit is seen. The clinical and EEG profile of the seizures disorder and the dynamic of the deficit in these cases bear a strong resemblance to what is seen in the acquired epilepsy-aphasia syndrome (Landau and Kleffner). The variations in clinical symptoms appear more related to the main site, local extension and bilaterality of the epileptic foci rather than a basic difference in physiopathology.

Emotional and neuroendocrine regulation in very preterm and full-term infants at six months of age

Emotional and neuroendocrine regulation have been shown to be associated. However, results are inconsistent. This paper explores the functioning and relationships between these two systems in 54 healthy preterm and 25 full-term born infants at six months of age. Results showed significant differences between very preterm and full-term children in emotional intensity and regulation, as well as in neuroendocrine regulation. No evidence of an association between neuroendocrine and emotional regulations was found. Results suggest a possible delay in the maturation of the neuroendocrine system as well as in emotional regulation in very preterm infants.

Low prevalence of behavioural and emotional problems among Swiss paediatric patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

OBJECTIVES: Whether behavioural and emotional maladjustment is more prevalent in children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) than in healthy controls remains controversial. The aim of this study was to assess paediatric IBD patients for problems with emotional and behavioural adjustment and to examine associations with clinical and demographic variables. METHODS: Data from paediatric patients with IBD enrolled in the Swiss IBD Cohort Study and the results of both the parent-rated Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and the self-reported Child Depression Inventory (CDI) were analysed. Of the 148 registered patients, 126 had at least one questionnaire completed and were included. RESULTS: The mean age of 71 patients with Crohn's disease (44 males, 27 females) was 13.4 years, and 12.8 years for the 55 patients with ulcerative or indeterminate colitis. The mean duration of disease was 1.2 and 2.7 years, respectively. The total score of the SDQ was abnormal in 11.4% of cases compared to 10% in the normal population. Abnormal sub-scores were found in 20.2% of subjects for the domain of emotional problems and in 17.1% for problems with peers. The total CDI T score indicated a significantly lower prevalence of clinical depression in IBD patients than in normal youth. No correlation between the total SDQ scores or the CDI T scores and gender, type or duration of IBD, inflammatory markers or disease scores was found. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of problems with behavioural and emotional adjustment among Swiss paediatric IBD patients is low and comparable to that of the normal population.

Selective attention to emotional stimuli: What IQ and Openness do, and emotional intelligence does not

We examined how general intelligence, personality, and emotional intelligence-measured as an ability using the MSCEIT-predicted performance on a selective-attention task requiring participants to ignore distracting emotion information. We used a visual prime in which participants saw a pair of faces depicting emotions; their task was to focus on one of the faces (the target) while ignoring the other (the distractor). Next, participants categorized a string of letters (word or nonword), which was either congruent to the target or the distractor. The speed of response to categorizing the string was recorded. Given the emotional nature of the stimuli and the emotional information processing involved in the task, we were surprised to see that none of the MSCEIT branches predicted performance. However, general intelligence and openness to experience reduced response time.