Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improving Mandarin Chinese STT system with Random Forests language models

The goal of this work is to assess the capacity of random forest language models estimated on a very large text corpus to improve the performance of an STT system. Previous experiments with random forests were mainly concerned with small or medium size data tasks. In this work the development version of the 2009 LIMSI Mandarin Chinese STT system was chosen as a challenging baseline to improve upon. This system is characterized by a language model trained on a very large text corpus (over 3.2 billion segmented words) making the baseline 4-gram estimates particularly robust. We observed moderate perplexity and CER improvements when this model is interpolated with a random forest language model. In order to attain the goal we tried different strategies to build random forests on the available data and introduced a Forest of Random Forests language modeling scheme. However, the improvements we get for large data over a well-tuned baseline N-gram model are less impressive than those reported for smaller data tasks.
Proceedings of the 9th USENIX Security Symposium

Designing a suitable con(cid:12)nement mechanism to con-(cid:12)ne untrusted applications is challenging as such a mechanism needs to satisfy con(cid:13)icting requirements. The main trade-o(cid:11) is between ease of use and (cid:13)exibility. In this paper, we present the de-sign, implementation and evaluation of MAPbox, a con(cid:12)nement mechanism that retains the ease of use of application-class-speci(cid:12)c sandboxes such as the Java applet sandbox and the Janus document viewer sandbox while providing signi(cid:12)cantly more (cid:13)exibility. The key idea is to group application behaviors into classes based on their expected functionality and the resources required to achieve that functionality. Classi(cid:12)cation of application behavior provides a set of labels (e.g., compiler, reader, netclient) that can be used to concisely communicate the expected functionality of programs between the provider and the users. This is similar to MIME-types which are widely used to concisely describe the expected format of data (cid:12)les. An end-user lists the set of application behaviors she is willing to allow in a (cid:12)le. With each label, she associates a sand-box that limits access to the set of resources needed to achieve the corresponding behavior. When an untrusted application is to be run, this (cid:12)le is consulted. If the label (or the MAP-type) associated with the application is not found in this (cid:12)le, it is not allowed to run. Else, the MAP-type is used to automatically locate and instantiate the appropriate sandbox. We believe that this may be an acceptable level of user interaction since a similar technique (i.e., MIME-types) has been fairly successful for handling documents with di(cid:11)erent formats. In this paper, we present a set of application behavior classes that we have identi(cid:12)ed based on a study of a diverse suite of applications that includes CGI scripts, programs downloaded from well-known web repositories and applications from the Solaris 5.6 distribution. We describe the implementation and usage of MAPbox. We evaluate MAPbox from two di(cid:11)erent perspectives: its e(cid:11)ectiveness (how well it is able to con(cid:12)ne a suite of untrusted applications) and e(cid:14)ciency (what is the overhead introduced). Finally, we describe our experience with MAPbox and discuss potential limitations of this approach.
NAD(P)H:Flavin Mononucleotide Oxidoreductase Inactivation during 2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene Reduction

ABSTRACT Bacteria readily transform 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), a contaminant frequently found at military bases and munitions production facilities, by reduction of the nitro group substituents. In this work, the kinetics of nitroreduction were investigated by using a model nitroreductase, NAD(P)H:flavin mononucleotide (FMN) oxidoreductase. Under mediation by NAD(P)H:FMN oxidoreductase, TNT rapidly reacted with NADH to form 2-hydroxylamino-4,6-dinitrotoluene and 4-hydroxylamino-2,6-dinitrotoluene, whereas 2-amino-4,6-dinitrotoluene and 4-amino-2,6-dinitrotoluene were not produced. Progressive loss of activity was observed during TNT reduction, indicating inactivation of the enzyme during transformation. It is likely that a nitrosodinitrotoluene intermediate reacted with the NAD(P)H:FMN oxidoreductase, leading to enzyme inactivation. A half-maximum constant with respect to NADH, KN, of 394 μM was measured, indicating possible NADH limitation under typical cellular conditions. A mathematical model that describes the inactivation process and NADH limitation provided a good fit to TNT reduction profiles. This work represents the first step in developing a comprehensive enzyme level understanding of nitroarene biotransformation.
A DYNAMIC LOOK AT L2 PHONOLOGICAL LEARNING: Seeking Processing Explanations for Implicational Phenomena

This study investigates whether second language (L2) phonological learning can be characterized as a gradual and systematically patterned replacement of nonnative segments by native segments in learners' speech, conforming to a two-stage implicational scale. We adopt a dynamic approach to language variation based on Gatbonton's (1975, 1978) gradual diffusion framework. Participants were 40 Quebec Francophones of different English proficiency levels who produced 80 tokens of English in eight phonetic contexts. In Analysis 1, production accuracy data are subjected to implicational scaling, with phonetic contexts ordered solely by a linguistic criterion—sonority hierarchy. In Analysis 2, the production accuracy data are similarly analyzed but with phonetic context ordering determined by psycholinguistic (processing) criteria—cross-language perceptual similarity and corpus-based estimates of lexical frequency. Results support and extend Gatbonton's framework, which indicates that L2 phonological learning progresses gradually, conforming to an implicational scale, and that perceived cross-language similarity and lexical frequency determine its course.This research was made possible through grants to Pavel Trofimovich, Norman Segalowitz, and Elizabeth Gatbonton from the Social Sciences and the Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and support from the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance at Concordia University. The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Melanie Barrière and Randall Halter in all aspects of data collection and analysis. Many thanks are extended to Dawn Cleary, Winnie Grady, Eva Karchava, Nootan Kumar, Magnolia Negrete Cetina, and Alin Zdrite for their help in various stages of this study. The authors wish to thank Tracey Derwing and Murray Munro for sharing their speech elicitation materials. Sarita Kennedy, Randall Halter, and five anonymous SSLA reviewers provided helpful suggestions on earlier drafts of this manuscript.
Impact of nuclear Piwi elimination on chromatin state in Drosophila melanogaster ovaries

The Piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA)-interacting Piwi protein is involved in transcriptional silencing of transposable elements in ovaries of Drosophila melanogaster. Here we characterized the genome-wide effect of nuclear Piwi elimination on the presence of the heterochromatic H3K9me3 mark and HP1a, as well as on the transcription-associated mark H3K4me2. Our results demonstrate that a significant increase in the H3K4me2 level upon nuclear Piwi loss is not accompanied by the alterations in H3K9me3 and HP1a levels for several germline-expressed transposons, suggesting that in this case Piwi prevents transcription by a mechanism distinct from H3K9 methylation. We found that the targets of Piwi-dependent chromatin repression are mainly related to the elements that display a higher level of H3K4me2 modification in the absence of silencing, i.e. most actively transcribed elements. We also show that Piwi-guided silencing does not significantly influence the chromatin state of dual-strand piRNA-producing clusters. In addition, host protein-coding gene expression is essentially not affected due to the nuclear Piwi elimination, but we noted an increase in small nuclear spliceosomal RNAs abundance and propose Piwi involvement in their post-transcriptional regulation. Our work reveals new aspects of transposon silencing in Drosophila, indicating that transcription of transposons can underpin their Piwi dependent silencing, while canonical heterochromatin marks are not obligatory for their repression.
Pyogenic liver abscesses: a comparison of older and younger patients.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether older patients with pyogenic liver abscess have distinctive presenting features or if their management differs from that of younger patients. DESIGN Retrospective chart review of all cases occurring from 1982 to 1992. SETTING A regional trauma centre and two large community hospitals. PATIENTS A total of 38 individuals with a final diagnosis of pyogenic liver abscess. Seventeen patients aged 70 or older comprised the study group and 21 patients under age 70 the comparison group. MEASUREMENTS Clinical features, laboratory data, therapeutic interventions and outcomes were sought. The presumed aetiology of the abscess was determined. RESULTS The study group had fewer men (47% vs 81%, P=0.028), less abdominal tenderness on physical examination (41% vs 76%, P=0.028) and fewer positive blood cultures in those sampled (31% vs 67%, P=0.04) than the comparison group. No study group patient had a history of trauma. Times to diagnosis were 3.2 and 5.9 days (P=0.14) and lengths of stay 21.6 and 29.3 days (P=0.08) for study and comparison groups, respectively. There were no differences in mortality or other demographic, clinical, laboratory or pathological variables. CONCLUSIONS Elderly patients with pyogenic liver abscess have some subtle differences in clinical and laboratory presentation, but these do not appear to delay diagnosis. Active management is tolerated well, with no difference in mortality.
Computational-based volatile organic compounds discrimination: An experimental low-cost setup

In this work, an array of low-cost cross-sensitive sensors is used for discriminating the best candidate within a set of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The challenge of our experimental setting is to deal with the problems of low selectivity, especially in normal operating conditions, so that ambiguous sensor responses (i.e. referable to more than one VOC) can be given, at least, a qualitative interpretation. In order to carry out the signal disambiguation task, a computational technique employing simple classifying rules and fuzzy descriptions has been engineered. The basic idea is that, if the same gas is actually measured by two or more sensors, then the estimated concentrations will show a low variance, with an accuracy related to the number of concordant sensors. Experiments show that, despite the cheapness of the setup and the coarse-grained nature of the provided response, encouraging results can be obtained and prospective work can follow.
Cell-specific expression of epithelial sodium channel alpha, beta, and gamma subunits in aldosterone-responsive epithelia from the rat: localization by in situ hybridization and immunocytochemistry

A highly selective, amiloride-sensitive, epithelial sodium channel from rat colon (rENaC), composed of three homologous subunits termed alpha, beta, and gamma rENaC, has been cloned by functional expression and was proposed to mediate electrogenic sodium reabsorption in aldosterone- responsive epithelia. To determine whether rENaC could account for sodium absorption in vivo, we studied the cellular localization of the sodium channel messenger RNA subunits by in situ hybridization and their cellular and subcellular distribution by immunocytochemistry in the kidney, colon, salivary, and sweat glands of the rat. In the kidney, we show that the three subunit mRNAs are specifically co- expressed in the renal distal convoluted tubules (DCT), connecting tubules (CNT), cortical collecting ducts (CCD), and outer medullary collecting ducts (OMCD), but not in the inner medullary collecting ducts (IMCD). We demonstrate co-localization of alpha, beta, and gamma subunit proteins in the apical membrane of a majority of cells of CCD and OMCD. Our data indicate that alpha, beta, and gamma subunit mRNAs and proteins are co-expressed in the distal nephron (excepting IMCD), a localization that correlates with the previously described physiological expression of amiloride-sensitive electrogenic sodium transport. Our data, however, suggest that another sodium transport protein mediates electrogenic amiloride-sensitive sodium reabsorption in IMCD. We also localized rENaC to the surface epithelial cells of the distal colon and to the secretory ducts of the salivary gland and sweat gland, providing further evidence consistent with the hypothesis that the highly selective, amiloride-sensitive sodium channel is physiologically expressed in aldosterone-responsive cells.
Absence of Thermal Hyperalgesia in Serotonin Transporter-Deficient Mice

Antidepressants in the treatment of neuropathic pain are thought to partially exert their effect by inhibition of serotonin (5-HT) reuptake and thus activation of central antinociceptive pathways. Mice deficient for the 5-HT transporter (5-HTT−/− mice) are regarded as a model of lifelong treatment with a serotonin reuptake inhibitor. Here we investigated 5-HTT−/− mice and compared their pain-related behavior after a unilateral chronic constrictive sciatic nerve injury (CCI) with that of wild-type littermates. Wild-type mice reproducibly developed ipsilateral thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia after CCI. 5-HTT−/− mice did not develop thermal hyperalgesia, but showed bilateral mechanical allodynia after the nerve injury. 5-HT levels as measured with HPLC increased after CCI in the injured nerve in both genotypes and decreased in the lumbar spinal cord in wild-type mice. 5-HTT−/− mice had significantly lower 5-HT concentrations than wild-type mice in all tissues investigated. Thus, in 5-HTT−/− mice, reduced 5-HT levels in the injured peripheral nerves correlate with diminished behavioral signs of thermal hyperalgesia, a pain-related symptom caused by peripheral sensitization. In contrast, bilateral mechanical allodynia, a centrally mediated phenomenon, was associated with decreased spinal 5-HT concentrations in 5-HTT−/− mice and may possibly be caused by a lack of spinal inhibition.
Industrial Organization , Asset Pricing , and Business Cycles

We develop a dynamic general equilibrium model with many different industries, in which firms set prices strategically in product markets. Our approach extends previous literature by endogenizing the market price of risk and allowing for more general risk structures. General equilibrium in the model is shown to exist under general conditions. Strategic interaction between firms amplifies business cycles, small changes in long-term growth rates can have drastic effects on the equilibrium outcome, whereas temporary changes in productivity have marginal impact, and the overall competitiveness of the economy only depends on long-term growth. A firm’s expected returns are affected by the industrial environment in which it operates, in line with what has been observed in the empirical literature. Overall, our model suggests that industry characteristics should be informative about the expected returns of individual firms over the business cycle. ∗Preliminary version. Comments are welcome. We thank Kyle Bagwell, Nicolae Garleanu, Zhiguo He, Anders Karlsson, Hanna Lustig, and Robert Staiger for very helpful comments and discussions. We also appreciate feedback from seminar participants at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign. All authors are at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. 1 MACROECON & INT'L FINANCE WORKSHOP presented by Marcus Opp FRIDAY, Dec. 2, 2011 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm, Room: HOH-706
Indirect imaging of the accretion stream in eclipsing polars ‐‐ I. Method and tests

We present a method to deduce the brightness distribution of the accretion stream in eclipsing polars using photometric eclipse profiles and an indirect imaging technique based on Maximum Entropy. Our method is developed from that of Hakala and includes improvements to the assumed trajectory of the stream and to the numerical algorithm used to extract the information from an eclipse profile. We present tests of the method using synthetic data, and show that the method is able to retrieve details of the stream brightness distribution from an eclipse profile in the presence of moderate noise, provided the phase resolution of the light curve is good. The method can be applied to the eclipse profiles of any polar with a bright accretion stream to identify regions of enhanced emission between the two stars. The method also provides estimates of the radius at which the accretion stream becomes threaded onto the magnetic field of the white dwarf, and of the mass transfer rate through the stream.
Dimensionality reduction of morphological features of tomato leaves and fruiting habits

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L) belongs to the family Solanaceae, which is extensively grown around the world. In Agriculture and Horticulture, the genetic purity of cultivars is critical to farmers, plant breeders, seed producers and as well as regulatory agencies. The genetic and morphological shape based features are used to classify different tomato cultivars and species. However, the large variations present in the shapes of tomato leaves and fruits make it complex enough to classify. In this paper we have applied image processing techniques on tomato leaves and fruits to obtain enhanced binarized images which precede the most crucial part of shape based feature extraction. Different morphological features are obtained and analyzed for tomato leaf recognition prototyping model. Finally, features are transformed for dimension reduction to get a better visibility of the features through Principal Component Analysis.
Duet‐splitting and the evolution of gibbon songs

Unlike the great apes and most other primates, all species of gibbons are known to produce elaborate, species‐specific and sex‐specific patterns of vocalisation usually referred to as ‘'songs”. In most, but not all, species, mated pairs may characteristically combine their songs in a relatively rigid pattern to produce coordinated duet songs. Previous studies disagree on whether duetting or the absence of duetting represented the primitive condition in gibbons. The present study compares singing behaviour in all gibbon species. Various vocal characteristics were subjected to a phylogenetic analysis using previously published phylogenetic trees of the gibbon radiation as a framework. Variables included the degree of sex‐specificity of the vocal repertoire, the occurrence of solo songs, and the preference for a specific time of day for song‐production. The results suggest the following scenario for the evolution of gibbon songs: (1) The last common ancestor of recent gibbons produced duet songs. (2) Gibbon duets probably evolved from a song which was common to both sexes and which only later became separated into male‐specific and female‐specific parts (song‐splitting theory). (3) A process tentatively called “duet‐splitting” is suggested to have led secondarily from a duetting species to a non‐duetting species, in that the contributions of the pair‐partners split into temporally segregated solo songs. This appears to be the first time that a non‐duetting animal can be shown to be derived from a duetting form. (4) The return to exclusive solo singing may be related to the isolated island distribution of the non‐duetting species.
Speeding up an Internal Clock in Children? Effects of Visual Flicker on Subjective Duration

Children of 3, 5, and 8 years of age were trained on a temporal bisection task where visual stimuli in the form of blue circles of 200 and 800 ms or 400 and 1600 ms duration, preceded by a 5-s white circle, served as the short and long standards. Following discrimination training between the standards, stimuli in the ranges 200-800 ms or 400-1600 ms were presented with the white circle either constant or flickering. Relative to the constant white circle, the flicker (1) increased the proportion of “long” responses (responses appropriate to the long standard), (2) shifted the psychophysical functions to the left, (3) decreased bisection point values, at all ages, and (4) did not systematically affect measures of temporal sensitivity, such as difference limen and Weber ratio. The results were consistent with the idea that the repetitive flicker had increased the speed of the pacemaker of an internal clock in children as young as 3 years. The “pacemaker speed” interpretation of the results was further strengthened by a greater effect of flicker in the 400/1600-ms condition than in the 200/800-ms condition.
Exploring the Impact of a Structured Model of Journal Club in Allied Health–A Qualitative Study

Background: This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study associated with an experimental trial which examined the impact over time, of a structured model of journal club (JC) on the knowledge, skills and evidence uptake of allied health practitioners (AHPs). The primary aim of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of AHPs regarding the use of iCAHE (International Centre for Allied Health Evidence) JC as a medium for evidence uptake. The secondary aim was to explain the quantitative findings in the iCAHE JC trial based on the perspectives of the JC members. Methods: Semi-structured individual interviews with purposively selected participants from the JCs were undertaken. The participants were asked about their experiences with the iCAHE JC, and to comment on the results of the iCAHE JC trial. Analysis of data was undertaken using the principles of the framework approach. Findings: A total of 12 AHPs participated in the interview. Their experiences of the JC were classified into seven themes: knowledge and confidence gain, convenience, empowerment, evidence utilisation, impediments, peculiarities, and refinements to iCAHE model. The participants found the current structure of JC suitable and useful in generating creative thinking about how practices can be influenced by research evidence. They identified ways of how they have used research evidence to inform their clinical decisions and described circumstances when research findings are not applicable to practice. The participants thought that the variability in EBP outcomes across disciplines found in the iCAHE JC trial was not surprising given that allied health disciplines operate using different models of care, and vary in terms of culture, attitude, professional orientation and the volume of evidence base available in their specific disciplines. There were a few minor suggestions to modify the current iCAHE model of JC. Conclusion: When lack of EBP knowledge and skills, and limited access to evidence sources are reported as barriers, they can be effectively addressed by running a structured JC such as the iCAHE JC. In instances when barriers other than lack of knowledge are present, more than one approach may be required. Future research should determine the impact of other approaches that may be integrated with the iCAHE JC to promote evidence uptake and sustain practice behaviour change.