Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Frequency domain coding of speech

Frequency domain techniques for speech coding have recently received considerable attention. The basic concept of these methods is to divide the speech into frequency components by a filter bank (sub-band coding), or by a suitable transform (transform coding), and then encode them using adaptive PCM. Three basic factors are involved in the design of these coders: 1) the type of the filter bank or transform, 2) the choice of bit allocation and noise shaping properties involved in bit allocation, and 3) the control of the step-size of the encoders. This paper reviews the basic aspects of the design of these three factors for sub-band and transform coders. Concepts of short-time analysis/synthesis are first discussed and used to establish a basic theoretical framework. It is then shown how practical realizations of subband and transform coding are interpreted within this framework. Principles of spectral estimation and models of speech production and perception are then discussed and used to illustrate how the "side information" can be most efficiently represented and utilized in the design of the coder (particularly the adaptive transform coder) to control the dynamic bit allocation and quantizer step-sizes. Recent developments and examples of the "vocoder-driven" adaptive transform coder for low bit-rate applications are then presented.
NF-κ B Promotes Breast Cancer Cell Migration and Metastasis by Inducing the Expression of the Chemokine Receptor CXCR4*

Metastasis of cancer cells is a complex process involving multiple steps including invasion, angiogenesis, and trafficking of cancer cells through blood vessels, extravasations, organ-specific homing, and growth. While matrix metalloproteinases, urokinase-type plasminogen activator, and cytokines play a major role in invasion and angiogenesis, chemokines such as stromal derived factor-1α (SDF-1α) and their receptors such as CXCR4 are thought to play a critical role in motility, homing, and proliferation of cancer cells at specific metastatic sites. We and others have previously reported that the extracellular signal-activated transcription factor NF-κB up-regulates the expression of matrix metalloproteinases, urokinase-type plasminogen activator, and cytokines in highly metastatic breast cancer cell lines. In this report, we demonstrate that NF-κB regulates the motility of breast cancer cells by directly up-regulating the expression of CXCR4. Overexpression of the inhibitor of κB (IκB) in breast cancer cells with constitutive NF-κB activity resulted in reduced expression of CXCR4 and a corresponding loss of SDF-1α-mediated migration in vitro. Introduction of CXCR4 cDNA into IκB-expressing cells restored SDF-1α-mediated migration. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays and transient transfection assays revealed that the NF-κB subunits p65 and p50 bind directly to sequences within the –66 to +7 region of the CXCR4 promoter and activate transcription. We also show that the cell surface expression of CXCR4 and the SDF-1α-mediated migration are enhanced in breast cancer cells isolated from mammary fat pad xenografts compared with parental cells grown in culture. A further increase in CXCR4 cell surface expression and SDF-1α-mediated migration was observed with cancer cells that metastasized to the lungs. Taken together, these results implicate NF-κB in the migration and the organ-specific homing of metastatic breast cancer cells.
Situation Awareness

This article provides a strong endorsement for the utility of the situation awareness (SA) construct in applications and agreement with the identification of fallacies on the construct cited by Endsley. I then highlight three aspects of the construct for discussion: the distinction between SA and decision/choice/action, the distinction between long-term and working memory (related to bandwidth of change), and the importance and challenges of Level 3 SA.
The Missing Link – Light-Induced (280–1,600 nm) Free Radical Formation in Human Skin

The recent European recommendation on the efficacy of sunscreen products requests now a minimum ratio of UVA/UVB protection. However, the visible and the infrared (IR) parts of the sun spectrum have received little attention concerning their possible contribution to skin damage. A common biophysical answer for the different wavelengths of the sun spectrum can be found in the creation of excess free radicals – mainly reactive oxygen species (ROS). Thanks to electron spin resonance spectroscopy applied to skin biopsies, we determined for the first time the free radical action spectrum covering UV and visible light (280–700 nm). Convolution of the action spectrum with sunlight spectral irradiance showed that 50% of the total skin oxidative burden was generated by visible light. Creation of ROS by visible light was experimentally confirmed by varying the illuminance of a spotlight. We also evidenced the creation of excess free radicals by near-IR radiation. In that case, free radical generation does not depend exclusively on the dose, but also on the skin temperature increase initiated by near-IR light. Some phenomena which are still unclear, such as the question about the deleterious or beneficial role of sunlight, are reviewed, implying the research on new protection strategies for the prevention of skin cancer.
Arithmetic duality theorems for 1-motives

Abstract The argument for proving Corollary 3.5 is insufficient; we fill in the gap here. Also, the first two statements of Proposition 4.1 may not be true in general in the case i = 1, but for the main results it suffices to use them over a sufficiently small U, where they hold. These results are used in the proof of Theorem 0.2, but its statement remains unchanged in the crucial case i = 1; in the (uninteresting) case i = 0 it needs to be modified slightly. We also correct a few other minor inaccuracies.
Safety of permethrin vs lindane for the treatment of scabies.

IN THIS ISSUE of theArchives, Franz and colleagues1report on the comparative percutaneous absorption of lindane and permethrin. They conclude that, for the treatment of scabies, 5% permethrin cream is at least 40 times less likely to cause toxic effects than 1% lindane lotion. These authors correctly state that surprisingly little clinically relevant information has been published related to percutaneous absorption of permethrin in humans. In fact, permethrin is one of the most extensively studied pesticides ever developed, in terms of metabolism, toxic effects, and routes of administration, including percutaneous absorption, in both animals and humans. Much has been published on the potential toxic effects of lindane in the central nervous system, and there is ample evidence that this pesticide is capable of producing damage to the central nervous system in humans. This is a rare occurrence when used as directed, but the potential for abuse or accidental
Modeling the Deterrent Effects of Punishment

Nonexperimental (homicide) and experimental data are used to study the effects of the certainty and severity of punishment. Many deterrence researchers, working without systematic theory of how punishments should operate to influence behavior, have opted for a simple additive model of certainty and severity. However, a satisfaction balance model-a social psychological theory representing a modification of the matching equation and positing interactive effects of certainty and severity-fits both sets of data well and substantially better than an additive model. The implications of the satisfaction balance model for a theory of deterrence are discussed
A Comparison of Inject-on-Read and Inject-on-Write in ISA-Level Fault Injection

ISA-level fault injection, i.e. the injection of bit-flip faults in Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) registers and main memory words, is widely used for studying the impact of transient and intermittent hardware faults in computer systems. This paper compares two techniques for ISA-level fault injection: inject-on-read, and inject-on-write. The first technique injects bit-flips in a data-item (the content of a register or memory word) just before the data-item is read by a machine instruction, while the second one injects bit-flips in a data-item just after it has been updated by a machine instruction. In addition, the paper compares two variants of inject-on-read, one where all faults are given the same weight and one where weight factors are used to reflect the time a data-item spends in a register or memory word. The weighted injected-on-read aims to accurately model soft errors that occur when an ionizing particle perturbs a data-item while it resides in an ISA register or a memory word. This is in contrast to inject-on-write, which emulates errors that propagate into an ISA register or a memory word. Our experiments show significant differences in the results obtained with the three techniques.
Proposed XML Standards for Law: MetaLex and LKIF

Electronic government invariably involves XML and electronic law: legislation is as essential to public administration as the ball is to a ball game. This paper gives an overview of two XML standard proposals dealing with two complementary aspects of electronic legislation --the documents themselves as a carrier, and an institutional reality they represent --in a coherent way: MetaLex XML and the Legal Knowledge Interchange format (LKIF). MetaLex XML is well on its way to becoming formal and de facto standard for legislation in XML. LKIF is yet to be submitted as a proposed standard. LKIF includes some interesting innovations from an AI & Law perspective.
Identifying Effective Spelling Interventions Using a Brief Experimental Analysis and Extended Analysis

ABSTRACT Spelling is an important skill that is crucial to effective written communication. In this study, brief experimental analysis procedures were used to examine spelling instruction strategies (e.g., whole word correction; word study strategy; positive practice; and cover, copy, and compare) for four students. In addition, an extended analysis was used to determine the effectiveness of the selected strategy over time. Third- and fifth-grade students, who were identified by their teachers as being poor spellers, participated in individual sessions using various strategies to improve their spelling performance. The results of the brief experimental analysis were used to identify the two most effective strategies for each student, and those strategies were alternated during the extended analysis for comparison. All students showed spelling improvements; however, not all students responded to the same interventions. For all students, the extended analysis demonstrated results consistent with the original brief experimental analysis. Future research directions and implications for practice are discussed.
Official Bilingualism in Paraguay, 1995-2001: An Analysis of the Impact of Language Policy on Attitudinal Change

During the first century after initial contact with Europeans in 1537, Franciscans and Jesuits documented and standardized Guarani, the indigenous language spoken widely in the area of Paraguay (Melia 1992). The Jesuits used Guarani as the language of formal education and for evangelizing until they were expelled in 1767. After over 200 years of official neglect and at times even persecution, Guarani was declared a national language by Stroessner in 1967. Guarani was made co-official with Spanish in 1992. At the turn of the millennium, it was still spoken by a large majority of Paraguayans, the only language to attain such status, as noted by Crystal (1992). Despite the widespread use of Guarani in Paraguay, analysis of recent census data confirms previous observations (Rubin 1968, Sole 1991, among others) that Guarani-Spanish bilingualism is higher in urban and border areas, whereas high rates of Guarani monolingualism in the home are limited to the rural interior (Gynan 2001). In the academic year 1994-1995, bilingual education was begun for about 10,000 students. The program has had theoretically solid input from the fields of applied psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics. In 1993, for example, Corvalan, et al., established Cummins’s linguistic interdependence hypothesis as the basic defense for inclusion of Guarani mother-tongue literacy programs at the elementary level (Corvalan, Krivoshein de Canese, Hobbs, and Rivarola 1993). Cummins’s hypothesis that first language literacy is essential for successful development of cognitive academic linguistic proficiency in the second language was prominently highlighted in 1995 as a justification for expanding significantly the country’s commitment to literacy instruction for the some 50,000 children who entered the system every year speaking only Guarani (Paraguay MEC 1995).
Long‐term neuroprotection and neurorestoration by glial cell‐derived neurotrophic factor microspheres for the treatment of Parkinson's disease

Glial cell‐derived neurotrophic factor is a survival factor for dopaminergic neurons and a promising candidate for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. However, the delivery issue of the protein to the brain still remains unsolved. Our aim was to investigate the effect of long‐term delivery of encapsulated glial cell‐derived neurotrophic factor within microspheres.
The Impact of Personal Trainer's Leadership Style on Self-Presentational Concerns, Enjoyment, Task Self-Efficacy and Intention to Exercise in an Introductory Weight Training Orientation

The purpose of the present study was to examine two leadership styles of personal trainers (bland versus enriched) to evaluate their effects on exercise-related outcomes. Participants were 103 university women with no previous experience weight training. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the two leadership style conditions. They completed primary measures prior to being introduced to the personal trainer. Next, participants completed an introductory weight training session, followed by postmanipulation measures. The leadership styles were successfully manipulated. Participants in the enriched leadership style condition reported significantly higher levels of enjoyment and intention to exercise. Participants in the bland leadership style condition reported significantly higher levels of social anxiety; no differences were found for task self-efficacy, self-presentational efficacy, social physique anxiety, or handgrip performance between groups. Thus, an enriched leadership style of personal trainers can increase positive psychological outcomes.
A multicenter, randomized, controlled trial of dexamethasone for bronchiolitis.

BACKGROUND Bronchiolitis, the most common infection of the lower respiratory tract in infants, is a leading cause of hospitalization in childhood. Corticosteroids are commonly used to treat bronchiolitis, but evidence of their effectiveness is limited. METHODS We conducted a double-blind, randomized trial comparing a single dose of oral dexamethasone (1 mg per kilogram of body weight) with placebo in 600 children (age range, 2 to 12 months) with a first episode of wheezing diagnosed in the emergency department as moderate-to-severe bronchiolitis (defined by a Respiratory Distress Assessment Instrument score > or =6). We enrolled patients at 20 emergency departments during the months of November through April over a 3-year period. The primary outcome was hospital admission after 4 hours of emergency department observation. The secondary outcome was the Respiratory Assessment Change Score (RACS). We also evaluated later outcomes: length of hospital stay, later medical visits or admissions, and adverse events. RESULTS Baseline characteristics were similar in the two groups. The admission rate was 39.7% for children assigned to dexamethasone, as compared with 41.0% for those assigned to placebo (absolute difference, -1.3%; 95% confidence interval [CI], -9.2 to 6.5). Both groups had respiratory improvement during observation; the mean 4-hour RACS was -5.3 for dexamethasone, as compared with -4.8 for placebo (absolute difference, -0.5; 95% CI, -1.3 to 0.3). Multivariate adjustment did not significantly alter the results, nor were differences detected in later outcomes. CONCLUSIONS In infants with acute moderate-to-severe bronchiolitis who were treated in the emergency department, a single dose of 1 mg of oral dexamethasone per kilogram did not significantly alter the rate of hospital admission, the respiratory status after 4 hours of observation, or later outcomes. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00119002 [ClinicalTrials.gov].).
Reducing vascular variability of fMRI data across aging populations using a breathholding task

The magnitude and shape of blood oxygen level‐dependent (BOLD) responses in functional MRI (fMRI) studies vary across brain regions, subjects, and populations. This variability may be secondary to neural activity or vasculature differences, thus complicating interpretations of BOLD signal changes in fMRI experiments. We compare the BOLD responses to neural activity and a vascular challenge and test a method to dissociate these influences in 26 younger subjects (ages 18–36) and 24 older subjects (ages 51–78). Each subject performed a visuomotor saccade task (a vascular response to neural activity) and a breathholding task (vascular dilation induced by hypercapnia) during separate runs in the same scanning session. For the saccade task, signal magnitude showed a significant decrease with aging in FEF, SEF, and V1, and a delayed time‐to‐peak with aging in V1. The signal magnitudes from the saccade and hypercapnia tasks showed significant linear regressions within subjects and across individuals and populations. These two tasks had weaker, but sometimes significant linear regressions for time‐to‐peak and coherence phase measures. The significant magnitude decrease with aging in V1 remained after dividing the saccade task magnitude by the hypercapnia task magnitude, implying that the signal decrease is neural in origin. These findings may lead to a method to identify vascular reactivity‐induced differences in the BOLD response across populations and the development of methods to account for the influence of these vasculature differences in a simple, noninvasive manner. Hum Brain Mapp 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A longitudinal follow-up study of happiness and meaning-making

The long-term outcomes associated with happiness and meaning-making were examined by following up on participants in previous studies on experiential learning an average of 2.5 years later. Measures of happiness and meaning-making were extracted by analyzing the participants’ journals using a computerized text-analysis program. Happiness as assessed by a composite measure of positive emotionality showed weak associations with the measures of adaptive functioning, and was negatively correlated with optimism, as well as positively correlated with emotion suppression. By contrast, meaning-making as assessed by composite measures of cognitive processing and self-distancing was robustly positively correlated with almost all measures of adaptive functioning. Regression analyses revealed that the two measures of meaning and their interaction term accounted for 20–24% of the variance in predicting the outcome measures. This study revealed that there may be at times a trade-off between happiness and meaning-making as well as a reversal in their patterns of long-term outcomes.
Is it worth it? Interest in risky behaviors as a consequence of sensation seeking and positive affect

Researchers have yet to examine how trait sensation seeking and state positive affect combine to influence participation in risky behaviors. This study examined how participant levels of sensation seeking and positive affect interacted to influence participant interest in performing a risky behavior. It was hypothesized that an interaction between sensation seeking and positive affect would be found, such that high sensation seekers low in positive affect would show more interest in participating in a risky activity than high sensation seekers that were high in positive affect or all participants low in sensation seeking, regardless of positive affect. Trait sensation seeking was measured in an initial group of participants (N = 693), using a subscale of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman these scores, high and low sensation seekers (N = 99) were invited to a second study, where videos were used to manipulate levels of state positive affect (Hemenover, 2003). Participants were then given a questionnaire to measure interest in participating in a risky drug study. No interaction was found, but a main effect for sensation seeking (Zuckerman, 1971) was discovered, such that high sensation seekers reported more interest in participating in a risky behavior than low sensation seekers. Therefore, it appears that participant interest in risky behaviors was a function of levels of trait sensation seeking. It is possible that problems with data collection or the risk-taking scenario contributed to the inability to support the hypothesis.
The Effect of Various Cytotoxic Agents on the Erythroid Precursors in Rat Bone Marrow

Summary. A comparison of erythroid repopulating ability, erythropoietin‐responsive cells and red cell production after treatment with nitrogen mustard, busulphan, daunorubicin, X‐irradiation, dimethylmyleran, methotrexate and cyclophosphamide is presented. Only some of the observed differences are due to different proliferation rates. This comparison also provides information about the drug sensitivity and proliferation state of the erythropoietin‐responsive cells.
Cross-Social Network Collaborative Recommendation

Online social networks have become an essential part of our daily life, and an increasing number of users are using multiple online social networks simultaneously. We hypothesize that the integration of data from multiple social networks could boost the performance of recommender systems. In our study, we perform cross-social network collaborative recommendation and show that fusing multi-source data enables us to achieve higher recommendation performance as compared to various single-source baselines.
Hybrid antibody mediated veto of cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses

Strategies are being sought that allow the induction of specific tolerance to allogeneic transplants without affecting other immune functions. The so-called veto effect has been described as one such technology where CD8+ cells suppress responses of class I MHC- restricted T-lymphocyte precursors to antigens expressed by those CD8+ veto cells. Yet, veto inhibition will not be able to provide complete tolerance to allogeneic grafts since it only operates on cell populations that express CD8. Other types of cells prevalent in most organs express different tissue-specific antigens that are recognized by alloreactive T-cells. Therefore, complete tolerance to an allogeneic transplant can only be achieved if all cellular components within the graft acquire the immune-inhibitory function. Here, we studied whether the veto effect could be exploited for this purpose nevertheless. We produced a hybrid antibody (HAb) combining a mAb specific for a class I MHC molecule with a soluble CD8 molecule. We found that this HAb specifically and effectively transferred veto inhibition to different stimulator cell populations. Thus, we have developed a strategy that promises to selectively and completely tolerize graft-specific CTLs without affecting normal immune responses.