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This book on Robust Speech Recognition and Understanding brings together many different aspects of the current research on automatic speech recognition and language understanding. The first four chapters address the task of voice activity detection which is considered an important issue for all speech recognition systems. The next chapters give several extensions to state-of-the-art HMM methods. Furthermore, a number of chapters particularly address the task of robust ASR under noisy conditions. Two chapters on the automatic recognition of a speaker's emotional state highlight the importance of natural speech understanding and interpretation in voice-driven systems. The last chapters of the book address the application of conversational systems on robots, as well as the autonomous acquisition of vocalization skills.

Speech processing systems. --- Computational linguistics --- Electronic systems --- Information theory --- Modulation theory --- Oral communication --- Speech --- Telecommunication --- Singing voice synthesizers --- Artificial intelligence

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The world is not on track to address climate change. As countries move toward developing stimulus packages to stem the economic impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19), it will be vitally important to build the foundation for a more resilient, sustainable and prosperous future. The objective of this report is to explore innovative financing approaches and case studies for enabling institutional investment in "climate-smart" infrastructure projects in emerging markets that can help close the climate investment gap. The first chapter of the report introduces key concepts related to the need for increased levels of climate-smart investment and the potential of refinance and securitization as a tool to facilitate further institutional investor involvement. The second chapter discusses the challenges and opportunities to close the climate investment gap, highlights the different roles of government, DFIs, and institutional investors, and the opportunity to use green bonds and green securitization and other methods to attract institutional capital. The third chapter reviews and provides a framework to examine the interconnected layers of investment barriers specific to institutional investment in climate-smart infrastructure.

Climate Change --- Climate Change and Environment --- Climate Change Economics --- Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases --- Energy --- Environment --- Environmental Economics and Policies --- Green Issues --- Infrastructure Economics and Finance --- Infrastructure Finance --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Renewable Energy

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The empirical evidence of the economic benefits of different utilities such as electricity, telecommunications and water is mixed and, in the case of micro and small enterprises, relatively thin. This paper therefore revisits this issue. Based on a unique, albeit cross-sectional, micro data set of informal firms in West-Africa, we find hardly any evidence for a significant contribution of access to different infrastructure services on enterprise performance. This absence of a systematic influence is attributed to the large heterogeneity of activities, motives and resources with which these informal firms operate. However, concentrating on a more homogenous sample of tailors in Ouagadougou, we find that their performance is positively influenced by access to electricity. In conclusion, our findings stress the heterogeneity of the informal sector, implying that a 'one-size-fits all' approach to the development of this sector is of little help.

Access of Poor to Social Services --- Civic Participation and Corporate Governance --- E-Business --- Energy --- Energy Production and Transportation --- Informal Sector --- Infrastructure --- Microenterprises --- Poverty Reduction --- Private Sector Development --- Small and Medium Size Enterprises