In this article, we introduce the state-of-the-art research outcomes of clinical applications of statistical speech synthesis and voice conversion techniques. In the speech information-processing field, there are emerging research topics and impressive research outcomes that may contribute to the quality of life of patients with vocal disabilities such as a technology to digitally mimick a voice of patients who are losing their voices due to diseases such as ALS (so the patients can use a personalized speech synthesizer that outputs their own voices) and a technology to digitally transform electrolaryngeal speech or disordered speech to natural-sounding intelligible speech in a real-time fashion. We also overview the current research topics after case studies with ALS patients and laryngectomees are described.

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A "paper dictionary" and a "digital dictionary" appear similar at first glance, but are actually quite different. Once this perspective is adopted, a completely different world comes into view. Since 2006, the Japanese dictionary "Dai-ji-sen" has been regularly revised by means of a database system. Its data is updated three times a year. Why was this database system created? What considerations guided its development? What kinds of data can the system create? Furthermore, how can this data be imposed over a commercial base? And, what goals should be pursued next? In recent years, the editing of dictionaries has gained attention. Although the essential qualities of editing words have not changed, editing digital dictionaries requires a way of thinking completely different from editing books. This paper introduces differences between digital dictionaries and paper dictionaries, the current state of digital dictionaries, and their potential.

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Nikkei Telecom, providing business information via the Internet, released new search interface "navigation type article search" that introduced a new technology called automatic article classification process. Compared to full-text search, the new search significantly improves the relevance ratio of the search results, and makes the user to narrow down the search results while reflecting their intentions. In this paper, while introducing "navigation type article search", I describe the overview of automatic article classification techniques.

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About one year has passed since National Bioscience Database Center (NBDC) of Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) officially launched NBDC human database on October 2013 which shares human derived research data requiring ethical consideration and the secure handling. In this report, brief introduction and current status of NBDC human database, and some major examples of practical challenges experienced during operation and discussions thereof are presented. Presumable problems in future operation are also discussed.

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