Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Model adaptation and adaptive training for the recognition of dysarthric speech

Dysarthria is a neurological speech disorder, which exhibits multi-fold disturbances in the speech production system of an individual and can have a detrimental effect on the speech output. In addition to the data sparseness problems, dysarthric speech is characterised by inconsistencies in the acoustic space making it extremely challenging to model. This paper investigates a variety of baseline speaker independent (SI) systems and its suitability for adaptation. The study also explores the usefulness of speaker adaptive training (SAT) for implicitly annihilating inter-speaker variations in a dysarthric corpus. The paper implements a hybrid MLLR-MAP based approach to adapt the SI and SAT systems. ALL the results reported uses UASPEECH dysarthric data. Our best adapted systems gave a significant absolute gain of 11.05% (20.42% relative) over the last published best result in the literature. A statistical analysis performed across various systems and its specific implementation in modelling different dysarthric severity sub-groups, showed that, SAT-adapted systems were more applicable to handle disfluencies of more severe speech and SI systems prepared from typical speech were more apt for modelling speech with low level of severity. Index Terms: speech recognition, dysarthric speech, speaker adaptation, speaker adaptive training
Investor Affiliation, Experience and Venture Capital Financial Contracts

This paper explores the relationship between venture capitalists (VCs)’ financial contracts and the characteristics of these VCs. Analyzing VCs' responses to our questionnaire, we find that VCs’ contractual behaviors differ according to affiliation and experience. VCs working for independent investment firms write contracts providing more protection against risks of agency conflicts between investors and entrepreneurs than VCs working for firms affiliated to a bank or “regional” investors. In addition, both independent and non-independent investors implement less protection against these risks when they have longstanding experience in the venture capital business. Finally, we differentiate the impact of affiliation and experience by type of portfolio company.
Modelling Dependent Defaults: Asset Correlations Are Not Enough

In this article we focus on the latent variable approach to modelling credit portfolio losses. This methodology underlies all models that descend from Merton’s firm-value model (Merton 1974). In particular, it underlies the most important industry models, such as the model proposed by the KMV corporation and CreditMetrics. In these models default of an obligor occurs if a latent variable, often interpreted as the value of the obligor’s assets, falls below some threshold, often interpreted as the value of the obligor’s liabilities. Dependence between default events is caused by dependence between the latent variables. The correlation matrix of the latent variables is often calibrated by developing factor models that relate changes in asset value to changes in a small number of economic factors. For further reading see papers by Koyluoglu and Hickman (1998), Gordy (2000) and Crouhy, Galai, and Mark (2000). A core assumption of the KMV and CreditMetrics models is the multivariate normality of the latent variables. However there is no compelling reason for choosing a multivariate normal (Gaussian) distribution for asset values. The aim of this article is to show that the aggregate portfolio loss distribution is often very sensitive to the exact nature of the multivariate distribution of the latent variables. This is not simply a question of asset correlation. Even when individual default probabilities of obligors and the matrix of latent variable correlations are held fixed, it is still possible to develop alternative models which lead to much heavier-tailed loss distributions. A useful source of alternative models is the family of multivariate normal mixture distributions, which includes Student’s t distribution and the generalized hyperbolic distribution. In most cases it is as easy to base latent variable models on these mixture distributions as it is to base them on the multivariate normal distribution. Of particular interest in the normal mixture family are distributions which possess tail dependence, such as the t distribution. In contrast to the multivariate normal, a distribution with tail dependence has a much greater tendency to generate simultaneous extreme values, even when correlation matrices are held constant (Embrechts, McNeil, and Straumann 1999). This effect is highly important in latent variable models, since simultaneous low values of asset values will tend to cause joint defaults of many obligors and this is precisely the phenomenon that leads to extreme risk in large credit portfolios. The large credit portfolio losses that occurred in
Lack of association between interleukin 28B gene polymorphisms (rs8099917G/T, rs12979860 C/T) and susceptibility to chronic hepatitis C virus infection, Tehran, Iran

Aim: Chronic Hepatitis C infection is a critical health problem worldwide, which caused by hepatitis C virus (HCV). Interleukin 28B (IL28B) is a determinant factor in disease progression and also susceptibility to chronic HCV infection. Background: The most significant aim of this study is to analyze the association between IL28B gene polymorphisms with susceptibility to chronic HCV infection in Iranian population. Methods: This study follows a case- control study design, in which, 288 patients with chronic hepatitis C and 250 healthy individuals were genotyped for IL28B polymorphisms (rs12979860 C/T and rs8099917 G/T). Studied population collected from Taleghani Haospital, Tehran. Genotyping of IL28B gene polymorphisms were performed using PCR-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method. 10 percent of the studied population was sequenced to validate the results. Results: rs8099917 G/T and rs12979860 C/T were differently distributed in hepatitis C patients and healthy controls in the female gender. TT, TG and GG genotypes distribution in the female gender were 56.7%, 39.8% and 4.5% in cases and 67%, 31.6% and 1.4% in controls (p=0.54). Also CC, CT and TT genotypes distribution were 31.8%, 61.4% and 6.8% in cases and 51.7%, 44.9% and 3.4% in controls (p=0.2). However, there was no significant difference in the allelic frequency and genotype distribution of rs12979860 C/T and rs8099917 T/G in both HCV patients with genotype 1a and 3a. Conclusion: It seems that rs8099917 G/T polymorphism plays a significant role in susceptibility to chronic HCV infection in Iranian population. On the other hand, no association was found between rs12979860 C/T polymorphisms and chronic hepatitis C.
Neutrophil elastase: alpha-1-proteinase inhibitor complex in serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid in patients with pulmonary fibrosis.

It was hypothesized that neutrophil elastase released from activated neutrophils may play an important role in the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis. In the present study, we measured the neutrophil elastase:alpha-1-proteinase inhibitor complex (E-PI) in serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) in 26 patients with pulmonary fibrosis and evaluated the correlation between E-PI levels and several parameters. E-PI levels in serum of patients with pulmonary fibrosis (635.8+/-112.0 ng.mL(-1)) were significantly elevated compared to normal nonsmokers (122.0+/-4.0 ng.mL(-1)) as well as normal smokers (132.8+/-8.4 ng.mL(-1)) (p<0.01). E-PI levels in serum significantly correlated with hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) levels in serum, C-reactive protein (CRP), and negatively correlated with arterial oxygen tension (Pa,O2), and arterial carbon dioxide tension (Pa,CO2). E-PI/albumin levels in BALF significantly correlated with HGF/albumin levels in BALF, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)/albumin in BALF, total number of inflammatory cells (alveolar macrophages and neutrophils) in BALF, and several markers derived from epithelial cells in BALF. Our data demonstrated: 1) neutrophil elastase:alpha-1-proteinase inhibitor complex in serum increased in patients with pulmonary fibrosis; and 2) neutrophil elastase:alpha-1-proteinase inhibitor complex in serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid correlated with clinical parameters in pulmonary fibrosis. These results suggest that neutrophil elastase may play a significant role in the process of lung injury in pulmonary fibrosis.
Long-term Clinical Course of Post-infectious Irritable Bowel Syndrome After Shigellosis: A 10-year Follow-up Study

Background/Aims A limited number of studies are available regarding the long-term natural history of post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome (PI-IBS). We aimed to investigate the long-term clinical course of PI-IBS. Methods A prospective cohort study was conducted from a 2001 shigellosis outbreak in a Korean hospital with about 2000 employees. A cohort of 124 hospital employees who were infected by Shigella sonnei due to contaminated food in the cafeteria, and 105 sex- and age-matched, non-infected, controls were serially followed for their bowel symptoms by questionnaire surveys for 10 years. Results The Shigella-infected cohort showed significantly higher odds ratio for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) at 1-year (11.90; 95% CI, 1.49–95.58) and 3-year (3.93; 95% CI, 1.20–12.86) follow-up, compared to their controls. However, corresponding odds ratio for PI-IBS was not significantly increased at 5-year (1.88; 95% CI, 0.64–5.54) and 8-year (1.87; 95% CI, 0.62–5.19) follow-up. At 10-year follow-up survey, the prevalence of IBS was similar for the Shigella-infected cohort and their controls (23.3% versus 19.7%, P = 0.703). Risk factors which were independently associated with PI-IBS among the Shigella-infected cohort included younger age, previous history of functional bowel disorder, and longer duration of diarrhea at baseline. Conclusions Patients who were infected by Shigella sonnei experienced significantly increased risk of IBS until 3 years after shigellosis, and modestly increased risk until 8 years, but showed similar risk of IBS with uninfected controls at 10 years post-infection. PI-IBS is quite a chronic disorder, and follows a long-term natural course.
Identification of protein binding sites on U3 snoRNA and pre-rRNA by UV cross-linking and high-throughput analysis of cDNAs

The U3 small nucleolar ribonucleoprotein (snoRNP) plays an essential role in ribosome biogenesis but, like many RNA–protein complexes, its architecture is poorly understood. To address this problem, binding sites for the snoRNP proteins Nop1, Nop56, Nop58, and Rrp9 were mapped by UV cross-linking and analysis of cDNAs. Cross-linked protein–RNA complexes were purified under highly-denaturing conditions, ensuring that only direct interactions were detected. Recovered RNA fragments were amplified after linker ligation and cDNA synthesis. Cross-linking was successfully performed either in vitro on purified complexes or in vivo in living cells. Cross-linking sites were precisely mapped either by Sanger sequencing of multiple cloned fragments or direct, high-throughput Solexa sequencing. Analysis of RNAs associated with the snoRNP proteins revealed remarkably high signal-to-noise ratios and identified specific binding sites for each of these proteins on the U3 RNA. The results were consistent with previous data, demonstrating the reliability of the method, but also provided insights into the architecture of the U3 snoRNP. The snoRNP proteins were also cross-linked to pre-rRNA fragments, with preferential association at known sites of box C/D snoRNA function. This finding demonstrates that the snoRNP proteins directly contact the pre-rRNA substrate, suggesting roles in snoRNA recruitment. The techniques reported here should be widely applicable to analyses of RNA–protein interactions.
Infrared Image and Visual Image Fusion Algorithm Based on NSCT and Improved Weight Average

Aiming at the charecteristics of the infrared and visible light image, a fusion method of the infrared and visible image based on the nonsampled contourlet transform(NSCT) is proposed. Through the use of NSCT to decompose the source image sparsely on multi-dirction and multi-scale, the low-frequency components and every bandpass subband direction components are obtained. For the low frequency subband components, the fusion method of the improved weighted average is adopted, for the top of the high-frequency components, the fusion method of big section of the regional variance is adopted, for the other layers of the high-frequency subband, the fusion method of the regional energy weighted average is adopted. The experiment results show that the method proposed in this paper can obtain more detail information and achieve the more ideal fusion image.
Modeling Ultraviolet Wind Line Variability in Massive Hot Stars

We model the detailed time-evolution of discrete absorption components (DACs) observed in P Cygni profiles of the Si IV λ1400 resonance doublet lines of the fast-rotating supergiant HD 64760 (B0.5 Ib). We adopt the common assumption that the DACs are caused by corotating interaction regions (CIRs) in the stellar wind. We perform 3D radiative transfer calculations with hydrodynamic models of the stellar wind that incorporate these large-scale density- and velocity-structures. We develop the 3D transfer code Wind3D to investigate the physical properties of CIRs with detailed fits to the DAC shape and morphology. We constrain the properties of large-scale wind structures with detailed fits to DACs observed in HD 64760. A model with two spots of unequal brightness and size on opposite sides of the equator—20% ± 5% and 8% ± 5% brighter than the stellar surface and with opening angles of 20° ± 5° and 30° ± 5° diameter, respectively—provides the best fit to the observed DACs. The recurrence time of the DACs compared to the estimated rotational period corresponds to spot velocities that are 5 times slower than the rotational velocity. The mass-loss rate of the structured-wind model for HD 64760 does not exceed the rate of the spherically symmetric smooth-wind model by more than 1% . The fact that DACs are observed in a large number of hot stars constrains the clumping that can be present in their winds, as substantial amounts of clumping would tend to destroy the CIRs.
Clathrin is not required for SNX-BAR-retromer-mediated carrier formation

Summary Clathrin has been implicated in retromer-mediated trafficking, but its precise function remains elusive. Given the importance of retromers for efficient endosomal sorting, we have sought to clarify the relationship between clathrin and the SNX-BAR retromer. We find that the retromer SNX-BARs do not interact directly or indirectly with clathrin. In addition, we observe that SNX-BAR-retromer tubules and carriers are not clathrin coated. Furthermore, perturbing clathrin function, by overexpressing a dominant-negative clathrin or through suppression of clathrin expression, has no detectable effect on the frequency of SNX-BAR-retromer tubulation. We propose that SNX-BAR-retromer-mediated membrane deformation and carrier formation does not require clathrin, and hence the role of clathrin in SNX-BAR-retromer function would appear to lie in pre-SNX-BAR-retromer cargo sorting.
Review Growth Factors and the Epididymis

A computer painting system is provided for a graphic computer system that has at least one touch screen apparatus and at least one display. A stylus having a tip formed of a solid piece of a resiliently compliant non-conductive material is used to apply variable pressure on the surface of the touch screen apparatus. Software executing on the computer system interprets the variable pressure applied to the surface of the touch screen apparatus and generates corresponding graphic images on the display. Preferably, the tip of the stylus is formed of a silicone material that allows the tip to easily move across the touch screen apparatus in a way that simulates a conventional painting brush stroke but without leaving a buildup of material on the touch screen apparatus. In one embodiment, the touch screen apparatus and the display are incorporated together in the same device. In another embodiment, the touch screen apparatus is a palette physically separate from the display and operably connected to the computer system.
Adolescent girls and young women: key populations for HIV epidemic control

At the epicentre of the HIV epidemic in southern Africa, adolescent girls and young women aged 15–24 contribute a disproportionate ~30% of all new infections and seroconvert 5–7 years earlier than their male peers. This age–sex disparity in HIV acquisition continues to sustain unprecedentedly high incidence rates, and preventing HIV infection in this age group is a pre‐requisite for achieving an AIDS‐free generation and attaining epidemic control.
Water shrews detect movement, shape, and smell to find prey underwater

American water shrews (Sorex palustris) are aggressive predators that feed on a variety of terrestrial and aquatic prey. They often forage at night, diving into streams and ponds in search of food. We investigated how shrews locate submerged prey using high-speed videography, infrared lighting, and stimuli designed to mimic prey. Shrews attacked brief water movements, indicating motion is an important cue used to detect active or escaping prey. They also bit, retrieved, and attempted to eat model fish made of silicone in preference to other silicone objects showing that tactile cues are important in the absence of movement. In addition, water shrews preferentially sniffed model prey fish and crickets underwater by exhaling and reinhaling air through the nostrils, suggesting olfaction plays an important role in aquatic foraging. The possibility of echolocation, sonar, or electroreception was investigated by testing for ultrasonic and audible calls above and below water and by presenting electric fields to foraging shrews. We found no evidence for these abilities. We conclude that water shrews detect motion, shape, and smell to find prey underwater. The short latency of attacks to water movements suggests shrews may use a flush-pursuit strategy to capture some prey.
Community, Conversation, and Conflict: a Study of Deliberation and Moderation in a Collaborative Political Weblog

This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. For more information, please contact pdxscholar@pdx.edu. Recommended Citation Soma, Samantha Isabella, "Community, Conversation, and Conflict: a Study of Deliberation and Moderation in a Collaborative Political Weblog" (2009). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 1447.
Identification of Putative Candidate Genes for Water Stress Tolerance in Canola (Brassica napus)

Drought stress can directly inhibit seedling establishment in canola (Brassica napus), resulting in lower plant densities and reduced yields. To dissect this complex trait, 140 B. napus accessions were phenotyped under normal (0.0 MPa, S0) and water-stressed conditions simulated by polyethylene glycol (PEG) 6000 (−0.5 MPa, S5) in a hydroponic system. Phenotypic variation and heritability indicated that the root to shoot length ratio was a reliable indicator for water stress tolerance. Thereafter, 66 accessions (16 water stress tolerant, 34 moderate and 16 sensitive lines) were genotyped using 25,495 Brassica single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) identified 16 loci significantly associated with water stress response. Two B. napus accessions were used for RNA sequencing, with differentially-expressed genes under normal and water-stressed conditions examined. By combining differentially-expressed genes detected by RNA sequencing with significantly associated loci from GWAS, 79 candidate genes were identified, of which eight were putatively associated with drought tolerance based on gene ontology of Arabidopsis. Functional validation of these genes may confirm key drought-related genes for selection and breeding in B. napus. Our results provide insight into the genetic basis of water stress tolerance in canola.
Social contextual recommendation

Exponential growth of information generated by online social networks demands effective recommender systems to give useful results. Traditional techniques become unqualified because they ignore social relation data; existing social recommendation approaches consider social network structure, but social context has not been fully considered. It is significant and challenging to fuse social contextual factors which are derived from users' motivation of social behaviors into social recommendation. In this paper, we investigate social recommendation on the basis of psychology and sociology studies, which exhibit two important factors: individual preference and interpersonal influence. We first present the particular importance of these two factors in online item adoption and recommendation. Then we propose a novel probabilistic matrix factorization method to fuse them in latent spaces. We conduct experiments on both Facebook style bidirectional and Twitter style unidirectional social network datasets in China. The empirical result and analysis on these two large datasets demonstrate that our method significantly outperform the existing approaches.
Towards a concordant model of halo occupation statistics

We use the conditional luminosity function (CLF) and data from the 2-degree Field Galaxy Redshift survey (2dFGRS) to constrain the average relation between light and mass in a Lambda cold dark matter (Lambda CDM) cosmology with Omega(m) = 0.23 and sigma(8) = 0.74 (hereafter WMAP3 cosmology). Reproducing the observed luminosity dependence of the galaxy two-point correlation function results in average mass-to-light ratios that are similar to 35 percent lower than those in a Lambda CDM cosmology with Omega(m), = 0.3 and sigma(8) = 0.9 (hereafter WMAP1 cosmology). This removes an important problem with previous halo occupation models which had a tendency to predict cluster mass-to-light ratios that were too high. For the WMAP3 cosmology, our model yields average mass-to-light ratios, central galaxy luminosities, halo occupation numbers, satellite fractions and luminosity-gap statistics, that are all in excellent agreement with those obtained from a 2dFGRS group catalogue and from other independent studies. We also use our CLF model to compute the probability distribution P(M vertical bar L-cen), that a central galaxy of luminosity L-cen resides in a halo of mass M. We find this distribution to be much broader than what is typically assumed in halo occupation distribution models, which has important implications for the interpretation of satellite kinematics and galaxy-galaxy lensing data. Finally, reproducing the luminosity dependence of the pairwise peculiar velocity dispersions in the 2dFGRS requires relatively low mass-to-light ratios for clusters and a satellite fraction that decreases strongly with increasing luminosity. This is only marginally consistent with the constraints obtained from the luminosity dependence of the galaxy two-point correlation function. We argue that a cosmology with parameters between those of the WMAP1 and WMAP3 cosmologies is likely to yield results with a higher level of consistency.
Direct Measurement of the Size of 2003 UB313 from the Hubble Space Telescope

We have used the Hubble Space Telescope to directly measure the angular size of the large Kuiper Belt object 2003 UB313. By carefully calibrating the point-spread function of a nearby field star, we measure the size of 2003 UB313 to be 34.3 ± 1.4 mas, corresponding to a diameter of 2400 ± 100 km or a size ~5% larger than Pluto. The V-band geometric albedo of 2003 UB313 is 86% ± 7%. The extremely high albedo is consistent with the frosty methane spectrum, the lack of red coloring, and the lack of observed photometric variation on the surface of 2003 UB313. Methane photolysis should quickly darken the surface of 2003 UB313, but continuous evaporation and redeposition of surface ices appears capable of maintaining the extreme albedo of this body.