Reconstruction of articulatory movements during neutral speech from those during whispered speech.

A transformation function (TF) that reconstructs neutral speech articulatory trajectories (NATs) from whispered speech articulatory trajectories (WATs) is investigated, such that the dynamic time warped (DTW) distance between the transformed whispered and the original neutral articulatory movements is minimized. Three candidate TFs are considered: an affine function with a diagonal matrix ( A) which reconstructs one NAT from the corresponding WAT, an affine function with a full matrix ( A) and a deep neural network (DNN) based nonlinear function which reconstruct each NAT from all WATs. Experiments reveal that the transformation could be approximated well by A, since it generalizes better across subjects and achieves the least DTW distance of 5.

Synergistic activity of phenazines isolated from Pseudomonas aeruginosa in combination with azoles against Candida species.

Candidiasis infections are caused by yeasts from the genus Candida. The types of infection range from superficial to systemic. Treatment often requires antifungals such as the azoles; however, increased use of these drugs has led to the generation of yeasts with increased resistance to these drugs.

Purification and characterization of antifungal phenazines from a fluorescent Pseudomonas strain FPO4 against medically important fungi.

The strain FPO4 was isolated from the rhizoplane of rice plant root and identified as a fluorescent Pseudomonas aeruginosa on the basis of 16S rDNA sequences and BLAST analysis. The extracellular metabolites produced by this strain were purified by silica gel column chromatography and isolated four pure compounds. Based on the spectral data the four compounds were identified as phenazin-1-ol, phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA), 2-heptyl-3-hydroxyl-4(1H)-quinolone (PQS), and phenazine-1-carboxamide (PCN), respectively.

Investigation of nano lipid vesicles of methotrexate for anti-rheumatoid activity.

Background: The purpose of this study was to formulate and evaluate nano lipid vesicles of methotrexate (MTX) for its anti-rheumatoid activity.

Methods: In this study the principle of both active as well as passive targeting using MTX-loaded stealth liposomes as per the magic gun approach was followed. Stealth liposomes of MTX were prepared by thin-film hydration method using a PEGylated phospholipid-like DSPE-MPEG 2000.

Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy: diagnostic accuracy of a non-invasive screening technique for early detection of malignant changes in the oral cavity.

Background: Strong proof-of-principle for utilisation of diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, a non-invasive tool for early detection of malignant changes, has emerged recently. The potential of this technique in distinguishing normal tissue from hyperplastic and dysplastic tissues was explored.

Methods: Diffuse reflectance (DR) spectra in the 400-700 nm region were obtained from the buccal mucosa of 96 patients and 34 healthy volunteers.