Abstract: A battery pack venting system includes a traction battery pack having at least one array of battery cells and a structural member having an interior. The array is configured to vent into the interior. a traction battery pack venting method includes opening a vent to an interior of a structural member. At a position between a first axial end of the structural member and an opposite, second axial end of the structural member, the method includes venting a gas from at least one array of a traction battery pack into the interior, and then venting gas from the interior.

Abstract: A computerized method (300) and software product (200) is provided for querying and modifying a Multi-Level Data Structure (106) stored in a Text-to-Speech (100) engine of a data processing system having a Central Processing Unit (202), a processing system memory (203), and an operating system (201), using an application program written in an interpretive programming language. The method includes the steps of initializing (302) by means of the CPU implementing a set of commands, a data processing environment for processing the application program, processing (306) the application program, where the processing includes identifying a marked command that encapsulates a DPMS program, and upon identifying a marked command, operating (318) on the MLDS using a DPMS interpreter for producing a result from the MLDS, the result available to the application program during execution of the application program.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and computer program product for synthesizing concatenative speech by allocating speech segments based upon their frequency of access during speech synthesis and storing frequently used speech segments in memory where they can be easily and quickly accessed. Speech data is recorded in separate files from which individual speech units are identified. The method and system of the present invention analyzes the frequency of access of each speech unit during synthesis and uses this data to sort the speech units according to their frequency of access. Those speech units that are accessed more frequently than others are loaded into memory where they can be accessed quickly during subsequent speech synthesis. Other speech units that are not used as frequently can be stored on a data storage disk.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and a computer program product to generate an audible speech word that corresponds to text. The method includes providing a text word and, in response to the text word, processing pre-recorded speech segments that are derived from a plurality of speakers to selectively concatenate together speech segments based on at least one cost function to form audio data for generating an audible speech word that corresponds to the text word. A data structure is also provided for use in a concatenative text-to-speech system that includes a plurality of speech segments derived from a plurality of speakers, where each speech segment includes an associated attribute vector each of which is comprised of at least one attribute vector element that identifies the speaker from which the speech segment was derived.

Abstract: A method, system and apparatus for grouped radio controls. A grouped radio control can include a listing of elements, each element having a specified grouping. The grouped radio control also can include grouping logic programmed to insert elements into, delete elements from, and select elements within the listing. Finally, a grouped radio control can include a grouped radio control interface configured to accept interface events for processing in the grouping logic.

Abstract: A system, method, and apparatus for identifying problematic speech segments is provided. The system includes a clustering module for generating a first cluster of one or more consecutive speech segments if the consecutive speech segments satisfy a predetermined filtering test, and for generating a second cluster comprising at least one different consecutive speech segment selected from the ordered sequence if the at least one different consecutive speech segment satisfies the predetermined filtering test. The system also includes a combining module for combining the first and second clusters as well as the at least one intervening consecutive speech segment to form an aggregated cluster if the aggregated cluster satisfies a predetermined combining criterion. The system can further include a ranking module for ranking aggregated clusters, the ranking reflecting a relative severity of misalignments among problematic speech segments.

Abstract: Novel mixed esters of dicarboxylic acids with monohydric fatty alcohols and propoxylated fatty alcohols show unexpected superior properties as pigment dispersants, especially for inorganic pigments used in foundations, make-ups, lipsticks and physical sunscreens. The compounds of the present invention show superior pigment wetting and dispersing properties, as demonstrated by their ability to form fluid, very high-solids dispersions, while exhibiting unusual emolliency and gloss formation.

Abstract: A method, a system, and an apparatus for identifying and correcting sources of problems in synthesized speech which is generated using a concatenative text-to-speech (CTTS) technique. The method can include the step of displaying a waveform corresponding to synthesized speech generated from concatenated phonetic units. The synthesized speech can be generated from text input received from a user. The method further can include the step of displaying parameters corresponding to at least one of the phonetic units. The method can include the step of displaying the original recordings containing selected phonetic units. An editing input can be received from the user and the parameters can be adjusted in accordance with the editing input.

Abstract: A method of filtering phonetic units to be used within a concatenative text-to-speech (CTTS) voice. Initially, a normality threshold can be established. At least one phonetic unit that has been automatically extracted from a speech corpus in order to construct the CTTS voice can be received. An abnormality index can be calculated for the phonetic unit. Then, the abnormality index can be compared to the established normality threshold. If the abnormality index exceeds the normality threshold, the phonetic unit can be marked as a suspect phonetic unit. If the abnormality index does not exceed the normality threshold, the phonetic unit can be marked as a verified phonetic unit. The concatenative text-to-speech voice can be built using the verified phonetic units.

Abstract: A method for updating a language model in a speech application during a correction session comprises the steps of: automatically acoustically comparing to one another audio of originally dictated text and audio for replacement text; and, automatically updating the language model with a correction if the acoustical comparison is close enough to indicate that the new audio represents correction of a misrecognition error rather than an edit, whereby the language model can be updated without user interaction. The updating step can comprise adding new words to a vocabulary in the speech application.