A Monte-Carlo Method For Score Normalization in Automatic Speaker Verification Using Kullback-Leibler Distances

In this paper, we propose a new score normalization technique in Automatic Speaker Verification (ASV): the D-Norm. The main advantage of this score normalization is that it does not need any additional speech data nor external speaker population, as opposed to the state-ofthe-art approaches. The D-Norm is based on the use of Kullback-Leibler (KL) distances in an ASV context. In a first step, we estimate the KL distances with a Monte-Carlo method and we experimentally show that they are correlated with the verification scores. In a second step, we use this correlation to implement a score normalization procedure, the D-Norm. We analyse its performance and we compare it to that of a conventional normalization, the Z-Norm. The results show that performance of the D-Norm is comparable to that of the Z-Norm. We then conclude about the results we obtain and we discuss the applications of this work.

Mechanisms of biogenic gas migration revealed by seep carbonate paragenesis, Panoche Hills, California

A comprehensive study of seep carbonates at the top of the organic-rich Maastrichtian to Danian Moreno Formation in the Panoche Hills (California) reveals the mechanisms of generation, expulsion, and migration of biogenic methane that fed the seeps. Two selected outcrops show that seep carbonates developed at the tip of sand dykes intrude up into the Moreno Formation from deeper sandbodies. Precipitation of methane-derived cements occurred in a succession of up to 10 repeated elementary sequences, each starting with a corrosion surface followed by dendritic carbonates, botryoidal aragonite, aragonite fans, and finally laminated micrite. Each element of the sequence reflects three stages. First, a sudden methane pulse extended up into the oxic zone of the sediments, leading to aerobic oxidation of methane and carbonate dissolution. Second, after consumption of the oxygen, anaerobic oxidation of methane coupled with sulfate reduction triggered carbonate precipitation. Third, progressive diminishment of the methane seepage led to the deepening of the reaction front in the sediment and the lowering of precipitation rates. Carbonate isotopes, with δ¹³C as low as −51‰ Peedee belemnite, indicate a biogenic origin for the methane, whereas a one-dimensional basin model suggests that the Moreno Formation was in optimal thermal conditions for bacterial methane generation at the time of seep carbonate precipitation. Methane pulses are interpreted to reflect drainage by successive episodes of sand injection into the gas-generating shale of the Moreno Formation. The seep carbonates of the Panoche Hills can thus be viewed as a record of methane production from a biogenic source rock by multiphase hydraulic fracturing

High-fat feeding impairs nutrient sensing and gut brain integration in the caudomedial nucleus of the solitary tract in mice.

Hyperphagic obesity is characterized in part by a specific increase in meal size that contributes to increased daily energy intake, but the mechanisms underlying impaired activity of meal size regulatory circuits, particularly those converging at the caudomedial nucleus of the solitary tract in the hindbrain (cmNTS), remain poorly understood. In this paper, we assessed the consequences of high-fat (HF) feeding and diet-induced obesity (DIO) on cmNTS nutrient sensing and metabolic integration in the control of meal size. Mice maintained on a standard chow diet, low-fat (LF) diet or HF diet for 2 weeks or 6 months were implanted with a bilateral brain cannula targeting the cmNTS. Feeding behavior was assessed using behavioral chambers and meal-pattern analysis following cmNTS L-leucine injections alone or together with ip CCK. Molecular mechanisms implicated in the feeding responses were assessed using western blot, immunofluorescence and pharmacological inhibition of the amino acid sensing mTORC1 pathway (mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1). We found that HF feeding blunts the anorectic consequences of cmNTS L-leucine administration. Increased baseline activity of the L-leucine sensor P70 S6 kinase 1 and impaired L-leucine-induced activation of this pathway in the cmNTS of HF-fed mice indicate that HF feeding is associated with an impairment in cmNTS mTOR nutritional and hormonal sensing. Interestingly, the acute orexigenic effect of the mTORC1 inhibitor rapamycin was preserved in HF-fed mice, supporting the assertion that HF-induced increase in baseline cmNTS mTORC1 activity underlies the defect in L-leucine sensing. Last, the synergistic feeding-suppressive effect of CCK and cmNTS L-leucine was abrogated in DIO mice. These results indicate that HF feeding leads to an impairment in cmNTS nutrient sensing and metabolic integration in the regulation of meal size.This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (K99 DK 093724 and R00 DK 020541) and the Ajinomoto Amino Acid Research Program (3ARP).This is the final published version of the article. It first appeared at http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0118888

L'élevage, un atout pour le développement durable des territoires dans les régions de polyculture-élevage

Comment l’élevage peut-il contribuer au développement durable des territoires en région de polyculture-élevage ? A l’inverse, les objectifs de développement rural peuvent-ils conforter la durabilité de l’élevage dans ces situations ? Notre réflexion est fondée sur des recherches interdisciplinaires sur l’agriculture et l’environnement dans différentes régions françaises (Coteaux de Gascogne, Plaine de Niort, Bretagne, Pays de Caux et Lorraine). Nos recherches appréhendent les relations entre transformations des activités agricoles et changements de l’utilisation des terres en lien avec les services écosystémiques. Ces questions exigent d’aborder de multiples dimensions de la gestion de l’espace et des ressources naturelles par l’élevage. Nos résultats illustrent la complexité et l’imbrication des questions de gestion de l’espace, de la parcelle au paysage, soulevées par le développement durable de l’élevage en milieu de polyculture-élevage. Au niveau de l’exploitation, ils éclairent les stratégies décisionnelles des agriculteurs. Au niveau du tissu d’exploitations, ils soulignent l’importance des relations et des échanges entre exploitations. L’expérimentation de systèmes innovants contribue à évaluer la compatibilité des enjeux territoriaux et de durabilité des exploitations. Enfin, nous proposons des pistes de recherche et d’actions pour conforter la contribution de l’élevage au développement durable des territoires ruraux

Constitutional breakdowns in revolutionary outbreaks:A legal analysis and political reinterpretation of Mubarak’s fall

International audienceIt is not self-evident to associate revolution with law. The disruption of political order that usually underlies revolutionary outbreaks is thought to affect legal rules so that they are no longer orienting actors. However, if law might be a source of constraints, ontologically it is more surely a discursive register tied to a state's legitimacy. When the state's control is at stake, as in a revolutionary situation, one can therefore understand that actors pay attention to the legal significance of their actions. The article will draw on this to analyze the Egyptian army's arrival to power and Mubarak's departure during the Revolution of 25 January 2011. By framing their acts as ruptures with constitutional legality (constitutional breakdowns), the article will suggest a richer and more nuanced narrative to the one commonly put forth by the literature. It will point to institutional strategies likely underpinning both actors' decisions and show that the army's initial intervention and Mubarak's resignation might have been less definitive at the time. It will also suggest new ways to think about the relation between law and revolutionary politics. By drawing notably on an understanding of law as a system of meaning from which actors make sense of events and act on them, it will show that legal studies can shed light on revolutionary moments beyond the issue of revolutionary processes' institutionalization

Hypothalamic dopamine signaling regulates brown fat thermogenesis

The dopamine system is widely known to modulate the brain reward system, affecting feeding behavior. The hypothalamus has been largely studied in the regulation of energy metabolism in peripheral tissues. Since dopamine receptors are expressed in the hypothalamus, we investigated the potential metabolic actions of the hypothalamic dopamine system. We found that the pharmacological or chemogenetic stimulation of the dopamine receptor 2 (D2R) in the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) and the zona incerta (ZI) decreases body weight and stimulates brown fat activity in a feeding-independent manner. LHA/ZI D2R stimulation requires an intact sympathetic nervous system to exert its actions. The activation of D2R requires the orexin system, since D2R fails to induce thermogenesis in orexin-deficient mice or when orexin receptor 1 is blocked. D2R stimulation and orexin inhibit protein kinase A (PKA) activity and the specific inhibition of PKA in the LHA/ZI recapitulated the thermogenic effects of D2R stimulation and orexin. In line with these preclinical findings, patients undergoing treatment with the D2R agonist cabergoline experienced an increase in energy expenditure that was evident as early as 3 months and persisted after one year, leading to total body weight and fat loss. Taking into account that D2R agonists are clinically relevant, our results may help to understand how these compounds act in the CNS to regulate energy balance

Norms matter:A comparative legal perspective on political Islam and state power in North Africa

The prevalence and position of Islamic political parties has increased since the Arab Spring. Though there has been much analysis on the role and ideologies of these parties little has been focused on their position and engagement in law-making and therefore their impact on state-society relations. This paper analyses the role of such parties as law-makers, focusing on how such parties engage and impact law making and how they utilize Islamic normative traditions. It will provide evidence from core examples including the right to life and the death penalty and the rights of secession of property after death

American Pioneer Landscapes: An Introduction

The concept of landscape is inseparable from the history and life of the Great Plains region. The idea encompasses the character of the physical environment in relation to the social, economic, and cultural changes mankind has wrought upon the land. In the past twenty-five years, and in several apparently disparate disciplines, there has been a convergence of interest in the concept of landscape as geographers, historians, art historians, literary critics, anthropologists, and folklorists have worked to produce a much broader understanding of how landscapes are imagined, represented, created, and viewed by different cultures. Geographers in particular have studied the ways in which human groups have etched their distinctive cultures upon the surface of the land. Other scholars have broadened and enriched the concept to include the ways in which images of newly settled lands are formed in the minds of people and in which landscape preferences are transplanted by culture groups from one region to another. The five essays in this issue were originally presented at the American Pioneer Landscapes symposium sponsored by the Center for Great Plains Studies, April 29 to May 1, 1981. Each treats the ways in which human 3 groups modify the landscape and stamp the surface of the earth with the marks of their culture. Our own culture, for example, will leave remains of tract housing, irrigation canals, windbreaks, roads, fences, and gravel pits as records of our technology and values. David Lowenthal, the author of the first essay, has been a major contributor to the study of cultural landscapes. An American by birth and training who teaches at University College London, Lowenthal has stressed in his earlier writings the importance of taste in the process of landscape formation. Here he suggests that pioneering was an ambivalent business. Plains pioneers are frequently portrayed as the tamers of nature, but it is far from clear that they saw themselves in that light. Moreover, society was often highly critical of those who went out to conquer the wilderness