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The geometric distribution of states duration is one of the main performance limiting assumptions of hidden Markov modeling of speech signals. Stochastic segment models, generally, and segmental HMM, specifically, overcome this deficiency partly at the cost of more complexity in both training and recognition phases. In this paper, a new duration modeling approach is presented. The main idea of the model is to consider the effect of adjacent segments on the probability density function estimation and evaluation of each acoustic segment. This idea not only makes the model robust against segmentation errors, but also it models gradual change from one segment to the next one with a minimum set of parameters. The proposed idea is analytically formulated and tested on a TIMIT based context independent phoneme classification system. During the test procedure, the phoneme classification of different phoneme classes was performed by applying various proposed recognition algorithms. The system was optimized and the results have been compared with a continuous density hidden Markov model (CDHMM) with similar computational complexity. The results show slight improvement in phoneme recognition rate in comparison with standard continuous density hidden Markov model. This indicates improved compatibility of the proposed model with the speech nature.

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surveying the content of Fars local periodical literatures at the late of Qajar and the beginning of Pahlavi shows that women had an effective role in the political and social activities like as the anti-authoritarian and constitutionalist movement and they had could raise their level of political and social awareness. Women in the form of communities and associations and using the magazines which were the most prevailing device at that time, tried to implement the changes in full for the society. Such efforts resulted in political and social awareness of Fars women and the whispering of the issue of women's social rights. Fars province women, through numerous articles of magazines, and for the first time acquainted with the women rights such as the right to education, the right to trade, etc. and gradually they sought to earn the aforementioned rights in the realm of action. The article is concerned on the extension of press and its influence on the process of political-social awareness and women's identity formation to assert their basic rights. The findings of the study show that the Fars press at this era was essentially self-disciplinary with the continuous pursuit of social and political rights for women and greatly assisted women to identify their rights and being socialized. The research method, since the main sources of research in the press, is based on textual analysis, which can be considered as a deeper level of descriptive-analytical method that ultimately leads to appropriate explanations.
 

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The genus Stachys L., (Lamiaceae family) has several spicy and aromatic species. In order to investigate the diversity of aerial biomass, morphological traits, and essential oil yield, 47 populations out of five species including S. lavandulifolia, S. laxa, S. inflata, S. germanica and S. byzantina were evaluated during two years, at a research farm in Khorramabad, Iran. The traits such as plant height, leaf length, leaf width, stem number, stem diameter, vegetation cover, 1,000 seed weight, and aerial dry (DM) yield in all 47 populations were measured. The essential oil was extracted using the hydrodistillation method with a Clevenger-type apparatus. The essential oil compounds were detected using GC and GC/MS. Data were analyzed using nested ANOVA with Minitab₁₆ software. The results showed that both S. germanica and S. byzantina had higher aerial biomass than the other species. The Saveh and Tehran populations of S. inflata, the populations of Qazvin and Qorveh in S. lavandulifolia, and the populations of Ardebil and Semirom in S. Byzantine were superior to the others for the measured traits. For essential oil yields (w/w), the highest and lowest values were 2.0 and 0.8%, obtained in S. byzantina and S. lavandulifolia, respectively. Phytochemical analyses of S. lavandulifolia identified 43 compounds. The main compounds were β-eudesmol (3.48%), germacrene-D (4.59%), δ-cadinol (4.69%), bicyclogermacrene (6.85%), δ-cadinene (9.69%), spathulenol (10.08%) and α-cadinol (12.86%). S. lavandulifolia, with early maturity and higher essential oil, was recommended for domestication and breeding of improved varieties.