Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The NAIST English speech recognition system for IWSLT 2015

The International Workshop for Spoken Language Translation (IWSLT) is an annual evaluation campaign for core speech processing technologies. This paper presents Nara Institute of Science and Technology’s (NAIST’s) contribution to the English automatic speech recognition (ASR) track for the 2015 evaluation campaign. The ASR systems presented in this paper make use of various frontends, varying deep neural net (DNN) acoustic models and separate language models for decoding and rescoring. Recognition is performed in three stages: Decoding, lattice rescoring and system combination via recognizer output voting error reduction (ROVER). We discuss the application of a rank-score based weighting approach for the system combination. Also, a Gaussian mixture model hidden Markov model (GMM-HMM) based speech/non-speech segmenter makes use of said combination scheme. The primary submission achieves a word error rate (WER) of 9.5% and 10.1% on the official development set, given manual and automatic segmentation respectively.
Time machine (1988--2001)

The time machine (in its science fiction incarnation) was born back in 19-th century [2], i. e. well before the concept of spacetime appeared. However, it was relativity that provided an adequate language for discussing and studying time machines. In particular, according to special relativity, our world is the Minkowski space and the life history of a pointlike particle is a curve in this space, see Fig. 1. In these terms one can formulate, in quite a meaningful
Surface Temperatures at the Continental Scale: Tracking Changes with Remote Sensing at Unprecedented Detail

Temperature is a main driver for most ecological processes, and temperature time series provide key environmental indicators for various applications and research fields. High spatial and temporal resolutions are crucial for detailed analyses in various fields of research. A disadvantage of temperature data obtained by satellites is the occurrence of gaps that must be reconstructed. Here, we present a new method to reconstruct high-resolution land surface temperature (LST) time series at the continental scale gaining 250-m spatial resolution and four daily values per pixel. Our method constitutes a unique new combination of weighted temporal averaging with statistical modeling and spatial interpolation. This newly developed reconstruction method has been applied to greater Europe, resulting in complete daily coverage for eleven years. To our knowledge, this new reconstructed LST time series exceeds the level of detail of comparable reconstructed LST datasets by several orders of magnitude. Studies on emerging diseases, parasite risk assessment and temperature anomalies can now be performed on the continental scale, maintaining high spatial and temporal detail. We illustrate a series of applications in this paper. Our dataset is available online for download as time aggregated derivatives for direct usage in GIS-based applications.
Recognition in social media for supporting a cause: Involvement and self-efficacy as moderators

We investigated the effect of recognition for supporting a cause on the social networking site Facebook, and measured cause involvement and self-efficacy as moderators in intention to donate and volunteer. We used a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subject factorial design, and obtained 262 responses from an online survey. Results indicated that social recognition, high involvement, and high self-efficacy resulted in more positive behavioral responses. In addition, social recognition served as a greater motivator to donate and volunteer for individuals with low cause involvement than it did for those with high involvement. Results further suggested that the positive effect of social recognition was amplified for individuals with high self-efficacy compared with those with low self-efficacy. Practical implications for the marketing of nonprofit organizations using social media are discussed.
Convective Clouds

A new technique for rendering convective clouds is suggested. The technique uses two lattice-Boltzmann (LB) models, one for generating the spatial and temporal distribution of water density and the other for photon transport, that is, lighting the water density with correct anisotropic scattering. The common LB structure is easily mapped to parallel execution environments such as a GPU or multiple CPUs connected via the Message Passing Interface (MPI), thereby providing sub-minute execution times on commodity hardware.
Lavandula angustifolia Extract Improves the Result of Human Umbilical Mesenchymal Wharton's Jelly Stem Cell Transplantation after Contusive Spinal Cord Injury in Wistar Rats

Introduction. The primary trauma of spinal cord injury (SCI) results in severe damage to nervous functions. At the cellular level, SCI causes astrogliosis. Human umbilical mesenchymal stem cells (HUMSCs), isolated from Wharton's jelly of the umbilical cord, can be easily obtained. Previously, we showed that the neuroprotective effects of Lavandula angustifolia can lead to improvement in a contusive SCI model in rats. Objective. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of L. angustifolia (Lav) on HUMSC transplantation after acute SCI. Materials and Methods. Sixty adult female rats were randomly divided into eight groups. Every week after SCI onset, all animals were evaluated for behavior outcomes. H&E staining was performed to examine the lesions after injury. GFAP expression was assessed for astrogliosis. Somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) testing was performed to detect the recovery of neural conduction. Results. Behavioral tests showed that the HUMSC group improved in comparison with the SCI group, but HUMSC + Lav 400 was very effective, resulting in a significant increase in locomotion activity. Sensory tests and histomorphological and immunohistochemistry analyses verified the potentiation effects of Lav extract on HUMSC treatment. Conclusion. Transplantation of HUMSCs is beneficial for SCI in rats, and Lav extract can potentiate the functional and cellular recovery with HUMSC treatment in rats after SCI.
Looking for determinants of willingness-to-pay for Sibelius Hall, Lahti

Abstract The aim of this paper is to determine the factors affecting the willingness-to-pay for a local concert hall, namely Sibelius Hall in Lahti. Our study argues that a high income, the use of cultural services and a positive attitude towards culture were connected to a high willingness-to-pay for Sibelius Hall. Our study revealed that “I do not know” answers can be partly explained by the character of cultural preferences being an acquired taste. As a consequence, the users and respondents exhibiting a positive attitude towards culture may choose the “I do not know” option instead of making a zero bid.
Geographically isolated wetlands of the United States

While many wetlands form along floodplains of rivers, streams, lakes, and estuaries, others have developed in depressions far removed from such waters. Depressional wetlands completely surrounded by upland have traditionally been called “isolated wetlands. ” Isolated wetlands are not confined to basins, as some occur on broad flats and others form on slopes. The term “geographically isolated wetlands” better describes these wetlands, since many are hydrologically connected to other wetlands and waterbodies through ground-water flows or by intermittent overflows (spillovers). Numerous types of geographically isolated wetlands occur throughout the United States. They may be naturally formed or the result of human action. Naturally formed types include prairie pothole wetlands, playas, Nebraska’s Rainwater Basin and Sandhills wetlands, West Coast vernal pools, sinkhole wetlands, Carolina bays, interdunal and intradunal wetlands, desert springs, terminal basins in the Great Basin, and kettle-hole bogs in glaciated regions. Human-caused isolated types may be intentionally built, such as ponds designed for various purposes and wetlands built on mined lands, or they may be accidentially created (e.g., natural wetlands that were once connected to rivers and streams but are now isolated by roads, railroads, and other development or isolated by altered river hydrology). Many of the functions and benefits attributed to non-isolated wetlands are present in isolated wetlands.
Investigation of nanoscale morphological changes in organic photovoltaics during solvent vapor annealing

Improvement of the photovoltaic efficiency via exposure of organic poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) devices to solvent vapor at room temperature is reported. In situ photoluminescence (PL) and Raman spectroscopy, in conjunction with ex situ optical absorption and atomic force microscopy, have been used to provide insight into the nanoscale morphological changes occurring during solvent vapor annealing. We found that in 1 : 1 composites of P3HT : PCBM, suppression of PL, narrowing in line-width of the 1442 cm−1 P3HT Raman peak, and strong modifications in the optical absorption spectra were observed during solvent vapor annealing, while minimal changes occurred in pure P3HT films. We attribute these spectral modifications to de-mixing of PCBM and subsequent stacking of P3HT in coplanar conjugated segments, similar to what is observed during thermal annealing.
Heuristic vision-based computation of planar antipodal grasps on unknown objects

A key issue in robotics is the development of the ability to grasp unknown objects. This ability requires a grasp determination mechanism that, based on the analysis of the description of the object, determines how it can be stably grasped. In this paper, a grasp determination method is presented that computes a set of grasps that comply with the force-closure condition. Its input is a set of contours, extracted from the vision data, describing the shape of the object. The internal holes of the object are taken into account, so the algorithm can find grasps on them. The algorithm also finds expansion and squeezing grasps, which are executed by opening and closing the gripper fingers.
Gene Properties and Chromatin State Influence the Accumulation of Transposable Elements in Genes

Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile DNA sequences found in the genomes of almost all species. By measuring the normalized coverage of TE sequences within genes, we identified sets of genes with conserved extremes of high/low TE density in the genomes of human, mouse and cow and denoted them as ‘shared upper/lower outliers (SUOs/SLOs)’. By comparing these outlier genes to the genomic background, we show that a large proportion of SUOs are involved in metabolic pathways and tend to be mammal-specific, whereas many SLOs are related to developmental processes and have more ancient origins. Furthermore, the proportions of different types of TEs within human and mouse orthologous SUOs showed high similarity, even though most detectable TEs in these two genomes inserted after their divergence. Interestingly, our computational analysis of polymerase-II (Pol-II) occupancy at gene promoters in different mouse tissues showed that 60% of tissue-specific SUOs show strong Pol-II binding only in embryonic stem cells (ESCs), a proportion significantly higher than the genomic background (37%). In addition, our analysis of histone marks such as H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 in mouse ESCs also suggest a strong association between TE-rich genes and open-chromatin at promoters. Finally, two independent whole-transcriptome datasets show a positive association between TE density and gene expression level in ESCs. While this study focuses on genes with extreme TE densities, the above results clearly show that the probability of TE accumulation/fixation in mammalian genes is not random and is likely associated with different factors/gene properties and, most importantly, an association between the TE insertion/fixation rate and gene activity status in ES cells.
The F-Box Protein AhSLF-S2 Controls the Pollen Function of S-RNase–Based Self-Incompatibility

Recently, we have provided evidence that the polymorphic self-incompatibility (S) locus-encoded F-box (SLF) protein AhSLF-S2 plays a role in mediating a selective S-RNase destruction during the self-incompatible response in Antirrhinum hispanicum. To investigate its role further, we first transformed a transformation-competent artificial chromosome clone (TAC26) containing both AhSLF-S2 and AhS2-RNase into a self-incompatible (SI) line of Petunia hybrida. Molecular analyses showed that both genes are correctly expressed in pollen and pistil in four independent transgenic lines of petunia. Pollination tests indicated that all four lines became self-compatible because of the specific loss of the pollen function of SI. This alteration was transmitted stably into the T1 progeny. We then transformed AhSLF-S2 cDNA under the control of a tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) pollen-specific promoter LAT52 into the self-incompatible petunia line. Molecular studies revealed that AhSLF-S2 is specifically expressed in pollen of five independent transgenic plants. Pollination tests showed that they also had lost the pollen function of SI. Importantly, expression of endogenous SLF or SLF-like genes was not altered in these transgenic plants. These results phenocopy a well-known phenomenon called competitive interaction whereby the presence of two different pollen S alleles within pollen leads to the breakdown of the pollen function of SI in several solanaceaous species. Furthermore, we demonstrated that AhSLF-S2 physically interacts with PhS3-RNase from the P. hybrida line used for transformation. Together with the recent demonstration of PiSLF as the pollen determinant in P. inflata, these results provide direct evidence that the polymorphic SLF including AhSLF-S2 controls the pollen function of S-RNase–based self-incompatibility.
Prevention and Restoration of Hearing Loss Associated with the Use of Cisplatin

Background. Cisplatin is a well known platinum-based chemotherapeutic agent used for the treatment of various malignant tumours. A frequent side effect of cisplatin therapy is ototoxicity. Unfortunately, currently there are no available treatments. Material and Methods. Experimental, clinical studies and reviews published between 2004 and 2014 in the English medical literature concerning ototoxicity were selected using Medline, PubMed, and Google Scholar databases. Inclusion criteria were cisplatin-induced ototoxicity and therapy aimed at preventing or curing this disorder. Molecular mechanisms and clinical, audiological, and histological markers of cisplatin-induced ototoxicity are described. Moreover, experimental and clinical strategies for prevention or treatment of hearing loss were also reviewed. Results and Discussion. Experimental studies demonstrate a wide range of otoprotective molecules and strategies efficient against cisplatin-induced hearing loss. However, only dexamethasone proved a slight otoprotective effect in a clinical study. Conclusion. Further research must be completed to bring future therapeutic options into clinical setting.
Effects of running sprint interval training versus traditional endurance exercise on metabolic indices in sedentary, overweight and obese women

Evidence suggests that sprint interval training (SIT) is a time efficient alternative for improving aerobic fitness or insulin sensitivity due to its reduced training volume and is of increasing interest since most sedentary individuals indicate lack of time as their number one barrier to being physically active. However, most SIT research uses cycling exercise performed with healthy active males, and limited research examines its effects on women or individuals at higher risk for inactivity related diseases, as well as different modes of exercise. PURPOSE: To evaluate the effects of running SIT (R-SIT) versus moderate intensity endurance training (MIET) on aerobic capacity, resting HR, BP, body composition, blood lipids, and glucose in sedentary, overweight/obese women. METHODS: Twelve sedentary, overweight/obese women (30.7±7.4kg/m 2 , 33.6±5.8y, 27.9±6.5ml/kg/min) were randomly divided into two 12-week training protocols, each for 3 days per week. The R-SIT group (n=5) completed 4-10 bouts of 30s “all out” sprints on a motorized treadmill at a 3-5% incline with 4 min active recovery. The MIET group (n=7) completed 30-60 min of moderate intensity (45-55% HRR) walking on a treadmill at a 3-5% incline. RESULTS: VO2max significantly improved 19.7% with R-SIT (mean ± SD; 29.59±7.3 to 35.57±10.4 ml/kg/min) and 38.6% with MIET (26.74±35.29±6.6 ml/kg/min) pre to post (p<0.05), with no difference between training groups. R-SIT significantly reduced body fat percent by 1.6±0.9% (p=0.016), but not with MIET (p=0.13). Fat mass (39.5±24.4 to 37.72±24.7 kg; p=0.08) and triglycerides decreased pre to post (146.2±73.7 to 93.8±36.3
Improving the Wikipedia Miner word sense disambiguation algorithm

This document describes the improvements of the Wikipedia Miner word sense disambiguation algorithm. The original algorithm performs very well in detecting key terms in documents and disambiguating them against Wikipedia articles. By replacing the original Normalized Google Distance inspired measure with Jaccard coefficient inspired measure and taking into account additional features, the disambiguation algorithm was improved by 8 percentage points (F1-measure), without impeding its performance nor introducing any additional preprocessing overhead. This document also presents some statistical data that are extracted from the Polish Wikipedia by Wikipedia Miner. An automatic evaluation of the performance of the disambiguation algorithm for Polish shows that it is almost as good as for English, even though the Polish Wikipedia has only a quarter of the number of the articles of the English Wikipedia.
Buffer Scalability of Wireless Networks

— We investigate the existence of scalable protocols that can achieve the capacity limit of c/ √ N per source-destination pair in a large wireless network of N nodes when the buffer space of each node does not grow with the size of the network N. We show that there is no end-to-end protocol that is capable of carrying out the limiting throughput of c/ √ N with nodes that have constant buffer space. In other words, this limit is achievable only with devices whose buffers grow with the size of the network. On the other hand, we establish that there exists a protocol which realizes a slightly smaller throughput of c/ √ N log N when devices have constant buffer space. Furthermore, we show that the required buffer space can be very small, capable of storing just a few packets. This is particularly important for wireless sensor networks where devices have limited resources. Finally, from a mathematical perspective, this paper furthers our understanding of the difficult problem of analyzing large queueing networks with finite buffers for which, in general, no explicit solutions are available.
A DNA Vaccine Encoding for TcSSP4 Induces Protection against Acute and Chronic Infection in Experimental Chagas Disease

Immunization of mice with plasmids containing genes of Trypanosoma cruzi induces protective immunity in the murine model of Chagas disease. A cDNA clone that codes for an amastigote-specific surface protein (TcSSP4) was used as a candidate to develop a DNA vaccine. Mice were immunized with the recombinant protein rTcSSP4 and with cDNA for TcSSP4, and challenged with bloodstream trypomastigotes. Immunization with rTcSSP4 protein makes mice more susceptible to trypomastigote infection, with high mortality rates, whereas mice immunized with a eukaryotic expression plasmid containing the TcSSP4 cDNA were able to control the acute phase of infection. Heart tissue of gene-vaccinated animals did not show myocarditis and tissue damage at 365 days following infection, as compared with control animals. INF-γ was detected in sera of DNA vaccinated mice shortly after immunization, suggesting the development of a Th1 response. The TcSSP4 gene is a promising candidate for the development of an anti-T. cruzi DNA vaccine.
Cornell Topology Festival Panel Discussion

The 2007 Topology Festival had a concentration of speakers in group theory and low dimensional topology. Two of the speakers gave introductory workshops on the subject — Chris Leininger spoke on Mapping Class Groups Versus Kleinian Groups and Tim Riley on Open Problems in Low-Dimensional Topology and Group Theory. The speakers featured in a panel discussion on Wednesday 23rd May in which they presented some recent results, not their own, that had caught their attention. Peter Kahn, one of the Cornell organisers, acted as moderator. In the 2004 paper by Kontsevich and Soibleman, entitled " Affine structures and non-archimedean analytic spaces, " the authors obtain a faithful action of some arithmetic lattice in SO(1,18) on the 2-sphere by integral piecewise linear home-omorphisms. It would be nice to have a more transparent construction of such an action. Is the group Homeo(D 2 , ∂D 2) of homeomorphisms of a disk which fix the boundary left-orderable? The guess is that it is not. If M is a smooth n-dimensional manifold, then the cotangent bundle T * M has a canonical symplectic structure. Many new invariants have been introduced relating to this symplectic structure, such as Witten invariants, field theory invariants, etc. What can these invariants of the cotangent bundle tell us about the smooth topology of M? Viterbo showed that the Symplectic Floer homology HF * (T * M) of the cotan-gent bundle corresponds to the homology H * (LM) of the loop space of M, where closed geodesics in LM correspond to periodic orbits of the Hamiltonian flow. Here Gromov-Witten invariants should correspond to intersection invariants of LM, such as those introduced by Sullivan and others. A question inspired by Mark Feighn's presentation: There is a map from the monoid of homotopy equivalences HE(∨S 1) of a wedge of n circles to the group Aut(F n) of automorphisms of a free group. Does this map have a section?
Frac Sand Mines Are Preferentially Sited in Unzoned Rural Areas

Shifting markets can cause unexpected, stochastic changes in rural landscapes that may take local communities by surprise. Preferential siting of new industrial facilities in poor areas or in areas with few regulatory restrictions can have implications for environmental sustainability, human health, and social justice. This study focuses on frac sand mining—the mining of high-quality silica sand used in hydraulic fracturing processes for gas and oil extraction. Frac sand mining gained prominence in the 2000s in the upper midwestern United States where nonmetallic mining is regulated primarily by local zoning. I asked whether frac sand mines were more commonly sited in rural townships without formal zoning regulations or planning processes than in those that undertook zoning and planning before the frac sand boom. I also asked if mine prevalence was correlated with socioeconomic differences across townships. After creating a probability surface to map areas most suitable for frac sand mine occurrence, I developed neutral landscape models from which to compare actual mine distributions in zoned and unzoned areas at three different spatial extents. Mines were significantly clustered in unzoned jurisdictions at the statewide level and in 7 of the 8 counties with at least three frac sand mines and some unzoned land. Subsequent regression analyses showed mine prevalence to be uncorrelated with land value, tax rate, or per capita income, but correlated with remoteness and zoning. The predicted mine count in unzoned townships was over two times higher than that in zoned townships. However, the county with the most mines by far was under a county zoning ordinance, perhaps indicating industry preferences for locations with clear, homogenous rules over patchwork regulation. Rural communities can use the case of frac sand mining as motivation to discuss and plan for sudden land-use predicaments, rather than wait to grapple with unfamiliar legal processes during a period of intense conflict.