After a period of rapidly declining U.S. COVID-19 incidence during January-March 2021, increases occurred in several jurisdictions (1,2) despite the rapid rollout of a large-scale vaccination ...program. This increase coincided with the spread of more transmissible variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, including B.1.1.7 (1,3) and relaxation of COVID-19 prevention strategies such as those for businesses, large-scale gatherings, and educational activities. To provide long-term projections of potential trends in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub teams used a multiple-model approach comprising six models to assess the potential course of COVID-19 in the United States across four scenarios with different vaccination coverage rates and effectiveness estimates and strength and implementation of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) (public health policies, such as physical distancing and masking) over a 6-month period (April-September 2021) using data available through March 27, 2021 (4). Among the four scenarios, an accelerated decline in NPI adherence (which encapsulates NPI mandates and population behavior) was shown to undermine vaccination-related gains over the subsequent 2-3 months and, in combination with increased transmissibility of new variants, could lead to surges in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. A sharp decline in cases was projected by July 2021, with a faster decline in the high-vaccination scenarios. High vaccination rates and compliance with public health prevention measures are essential to control the COVID-19 pandemic and to prevent surges in hospitalizations and deaths in the coming months.
Full text
Available for:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VSZLJ
The ratio of the nucleon $F_2$ structure functions, $F^n_2/F^p_2$, is determined by the MARATHON experiment from measurements of deep inelastic scattering of electrons from 3H and 3He nuclei. The ...experiment was performed in the Hall A Facility of Jefferson Lab using two high-resolution spectrometers for electron detection, and a cryogenic target system which included a low-activity tritium cell. The data analysis used a novel technique exploiting the mirror symmetry of the two nuclei, which essentially eliminates many theoretical uncertainties in the extraction of the ratio. The results, which cover the Bjorken scaling variable range 0.19 < x < 0.83, represent a significant improvement compared to previous SLAC and Jefferson Lab measurements for the ratio. They are compared to recent theoretical calculations and empirical determinations of the $F^n_2/F^p_2$ ratio.
Full text
Available for:
CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
Voice conversion (VC) consists in modifying the source speaker’s voice toward the voice of the target speaker. In our paper, we are interested in calculating the performance of a conversion system ...based on GMM, applied to the Arabic language, by exploiting both the information of the pitch dynamics and the spectrum. We study three approaches to obtain the global conversion function of the pitch and the overall spectrum, using the joint probability model. In the first approach, we calculate the joint conversion of pitch and spectrum. In the second approach, the pitch is calculated by linear conversion. In the third approach, we use the relationship between the pitch and the spectrum. For the conversion of noise we use a new technique that consists in modeling the noise of the voiced or unvoiced frames by GMMs. We use the HNM for analysis/synthesis and a regularized discrete cepstrum in order to estimate the spectrum of the speech signal.
Full text
Available for:
EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
We present new precision measurements of the elastic electron-proton scattering cross section for momentum transfer (Q^{2}) up to 15.75 (GeV/c)^{2}. Combined with existing data, these provide an ...improved extraction of the proton magnetic form factor at high Q^{2} and double the range over which a longitudinal or transverse separation of the cross section can be performed. The difference between our results and polarization data agrees with that observed at lower Q^{2} and attributed to hard two-photon exchange (TPE) effects, extending to 8 (GeV/c)^{2} the range of Q^{2} for which a discrepancy is established at >95% confidence. We use the discrepancy to quantify the size of TPE contributions needed to explain the cross section at high Q^{2}.
Full text
Available for:
CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
In the context of music indexation, it would be useful to have a precise information about the number of sources performing; a source is a solo voice or an isolated instrument which produces a single ...note at any time. This correspondence discusses the automatic distinction between monophonic music excerpts, where only one source is present, and polyphonic ones. Our method is based on the analysis of a "confidence indicator," which gives the confidence (in fact its inverse) on the current estimated fundamental frequency (pitch). In a monophony, the confidence indicator is low. In a polyphony, the confidence indicator is higher and varies more. This leads us to compute the short term mean and variance of this indicator, take this 2-D vector as the observation vector and model its conditional distribution with Weibull bivariate models. This probability density function is characterized by five parameters. A method to perform their estimation is developed (in theory and practice). The decision is taken considering the maximum likelihood, computed over one second. The best configuration gives a global error rate of 6.3%, performed on a balanced corpus (18 minutes in total).
Here, we report the first measurement of the (e, e' p) three-body breakup reaction cross sections in helium-3 (3He) and tritium (3H) at large momentum transfer ($\langle{Q^2}\rangle$ ≈ 1.9 (GeV/c)2) ...and xB > 1 kinematics, where the cross section should be sensitive to quasielastic (QE) scattering from single nucleons. The data cover missing momenta 40 ≤ pmiss ≤ 500 MeV/c that, in the QE limit with no rescattering, equals the initial momentum of the probed nucleon. The measured cross sections are compared with state-of-the-art ab-initio calculations. Overall good agreement, within ±20%, is observed between data and calculations for the full pmiss range for 3H and for 100 ≤ pmiss ≤ 350 MeV/c for 3He. Including the effects of rescattering of the outgoing nucleon improves agreement with the data at pmiss > 250 MeV/c and suggests contributions from charge-exchange (SCX) rescattering. The isoscalar sum of 3He plus 3H, which is largely insensitive to SCX, is described by calculations to within the accuracy of the data over the entire pmiss range. This validates current models of the ground state of the three-nucleon system up to very high initial nucleon momenta of 500 MeV/c.
Full text
Available for:
CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
We report the first measurement of the
(
e
,
e
′
p
)
three-body breakup reaction cross sections in helium-3 (
3
He
) and tritium (
3
H
) at large momentum transfer
⟨
Q
2
⟩
≈
1.9
(
GeV
/
c
)
2
...and
x
B
>
1
kinematics, where the cross section should be sensitive to quasielastic (QE) scattering from single nucleons. The data cover missing momenta
40
≤
p
miss
≤
500
MeV
/
c
that, in the QE limit with no rescattering, equals the initial momentum of the probed nucleon. The measured cross sections are compared with state-of-the-art ab initio calculations. Overall good agreement, within
±
20
%
, is observed between data and calculations for the full
p
miss
range for
3
H
and for
100
≤
p
miss
≤
350
MeV
/
c
for
3
He
. Including the effects of rescattering of the outgoing nucleon improves agreement with the data at
p
miss
>
250
MeV
/
c
and suggests contributions from charge-exchange (SCX) rescattering. The isoscalar sum of
3
He
plus
3
H
, which is largely insensitive to SCX, is described by calculations to within the accuracy of the data over the entire
p
miss
range. This validates current models of the ground state of the three-nucleon system up to very high initial nucleon momenta of
500
MeV
/
c
.
Full text
Available for:
CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
10.
An unsupervised approach to language identification Pellegrino, F.; Andre-Obrecht, R.
1999 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing. Proceedings. ICASSP99 (Cat. No.99CH36258),
1999, Volume:
2
Conference Proceeding
This paper presents an unsupervised approach to automatic language identification (ALI) based on vowel system modeling. Each language vowel system is modeled by a Gaussian mixture model (GMM) trained ...with automatically detected vowels. Since this detection is unsupervised and language independent, no labeled data are required. GMMs are initialized using an efficient data-driven variant of the LBG algorithm: the LBG-Rissanen (1983) algorithm. With 5 languages from the OGI MLTS corpus and in a close set identification task, we reach 79% of correct identification using only the vowel segments detected in 45 second duration utterances for the male speakers.