Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Minimum Kullback–Leibler Divergence Parameter Generation for HMM-Based Speech Synthesis

This paper presents a parameter generation method for hidden Markov model (HMM)-based statistical parametric speech synthesis that uses a similarity measure for probability distributions. In contrast to conventional maximum output probability parameter generation (MOPPG), the method we propose derives a parameter generation criterion from the distribution characteristics of the generated acoustic features. Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence between the sentence HMM used for parameter generation and the HMM estimated from the generated features is calculated by upper bound approximation. During parameter generation, this KL divergence is minimized either by optimizing the generated acoustic parameters directly or by applying a linear transform to the MOPPG outputs. Our experiments show both these approaches are effective for alleviating over-smoothing in the generated spectral features and for improving the naturalness of synthetic speech. Compared with the direct optimization approach, which is susceptible to over-fitting, the feature transform approach gives better performance. In order to reduce the computational complexity of transform estimation, an offline training method is further developed to estimate a global transform under the minimum KL divergence criterion for the training set. Experimental results show that this global transform is as effective as the transform estimated for each sentence at synthesis stage.
Latino English Language Learners in Middle School and the Effect of General Education Teachers' Use of the Lesson Study Collaborative Model

Latino English Language Learners in Middle School and the Effect of General Education Teachers’ Use of the Lesson Study Collaborative Model By Chauncey Dante Reese M.A., University of Phoenix, 2005 B.S., Cameron University, 2001 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education Teacher Leadership
Price flexibility in British supermarkets : moderation and recession

This paper delivers a significantly different empirical perspective on micro pricing behaviour and its impact on macroeconomic processes than previous studies, largely resulting from the fact that our weekly price data for the three major British supermarkets spans a seven year period including the crisis years 2008-2010. We find that there is a large and significant change in the behaviour of prices from 2008 onwards: prices change more frequently and the average duration of price spells declines significantly. Several of our findings run strongly counter to established empirical regularities, in particular the high overall frequency of regular or reference price changes we uncover, the greater intensity of change in more turbulent times and the numerical dominance of price falls over rises. The pricing behaviour revealed also significantly challenges the implicit assumption that prices are tracking cost changes. JEL classification: E30 ; E31 ; L81
New period-luminosity and period-color relations of classical Cepheids - IV. The low-metallicity galaxies IC 1613, WLM, Pegasus, Sextans A and B, and Leo A in comparison to SMC

The metal-poor, fundamental-mode (P0) and first-overtone (P1) Cepheids in the dwarf galaxies IC1613, WLM, Pegasus, Sextans A, Sextans B, and Leo A are compared with the about equally metal-poor Cepheids of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The period-color (P-C) and period-luminosity (P-L) relations of the seven galaxies are indistinguishable, but differ distinctly from those in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the solar neighborhood. Adopting (m − M) 0 = 18.93 from independent evidence, one can determine reliable distance moduli for the other dwarf galaxies of (m − M) 0 = 24.34 ± 0.03, 24.95 ± 0.03, 24.87 ± 0.06, 25.60 ± 0.03 (mean for Sextans A & B), and 24.59 ± 0.03, respectively.
Two Time Scales in Speech Processing

Maria Chait*, Steven Greenberg**, Takayuki Arai***, Jonathan Z. Simon**** and David Poeppel* *Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, Cognitive Neuroscience of Language Lab, Department of Linguistics, University of Maryland College Park ** Centre for Applied Hearing Research, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark ***Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Sophia University, Tokyo ****Departments of Biology and Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Maryland College Park
Journal of Software Maintenance and Evolution: Research and Practice Survey a Survey and Taxonomy of Approaches for Mining Software Repositories in the Context of Software Evolution

SUMMARY A comprehensive literature survey on approaches for mining software repositories (MSR) in the context of software evolution is presented. In particular, this survey deals with those investigations that examine multiple versions of software artifacts or other temporal information. A taxonomy is derived from the analysis of this literature and presents the work via four dimensions: the type of software repositories mined (what), the purpose (why), the adopted/invented methodology used (how), and the evaluation method (quality). The taxonomy is demonstrated to be expressive (i.e., capable of representing a wide spectrum of MSR investigations) and effective (i.e., facilitates similarities and comparisons of MSR investigations). Lastly, a number of open research issues in MSR that require further investigation are identified.
A Comparison of Cell-Enriched Fat Transfer to Conventional Fat Grafting after Aesthetic Procedures Using a Patient Satisfaction Survey

IntroductionThe role of regenerative cells in adult human fat is still unfolding. At present, limited clinical studies comparing patient satisfaction with cell-enriched fat transfer (CEFT) to conventional autologous fat transfer (AFT) for aesthetic indications have been performed. Herein, we present our data obtained from patient satisfaction questionnaires. MethodsPatients undergoing fat grafting received AFT or CEFT. Study participants were surveyed for overall satisfaction, symmetry, deformity, scarring, and pigmentation. Hospital charts were reviewed for complications, and patient survey responses between the groups were compared. ResultsBetween January 2009 and September 2011, 36 patients had 6-months follow-up and were mailed surveys. Of these, 17 (12 CEFT and 5 AFT) returned completed Patient Satisfaction Rating surveys. At a median follow-up time of 10.7 months, the overall mean satisfaction rate was 5.2 of 6 (5.3 vs 5.0 for CEFT and AFT, respectively, P = 0.42). There were no significant differences about deformity (5.1 vs 4.7, P = 0.50), symmetry (4.5 vs 5.0, P = 0.48), or scarring (5.3 vs 4.5, P = 0.23). However, pigmentation was improved in the CEFT vs the AFT groups (P < 0.001). No patients in the AFT group noted skin pigmentation improvement, whereas 7 of 12 receiving CEFT noted improvement in skin pigmentation. ConclusionsCell-enriched fat transfer to the face and body of aesthetic patients produces high satisfaction rates. Our preliminary data demonstrates similar satisfaction with regard to symmetry, scarring, and deformity in patients treated with CEFT versus AFT, without any complications. Unexpectedly, a clinical and statistical improvement in pigmentation was seen for patients treated with CEFT over AFT. Further studies need to be done to better understand this phenomenon.
A Re-examination of Galactic Conformity and a Comparison with Semi-analytic Models of Galaxy Formation

The observed correlation between star-formation in central galaxies and in their neighbours (a phenomenon dubbed “galactic conformity”) is in need of a convincing physical explanation. To gain further insight, we use a volume-limited sample of galaxies with redshifts less than 0.03 drawn from the SDSS Data Release 7 to investigate the scale dependence of the effect and how it changes as a function of the mass of the central galaxy. Conformity extends over a central galaxy stellar mass range spanning two orders of magnitude. The scale dependence and the precise nature of the effect depend on the mass of the central. In central galaxies with masses less than 10 10 M⊙, conformity extends out to scales in excess of 4 Mpc, well beyond the virial radii of their dark matter halos. For low mass central galaxies, conformity with neighbours on very large scales is only seen when they have low star formation rate or gas content. In contrast, at high stellar masses, conformity with neighbours applies in the gas-rich regime and is clearly confined to scales comparable to the virial radius of the dark matter halo of the central galaxy. Our analysis of a mock catalogue from the Guo et al (2011) semi-analytic models shows that conformity-like effects arise because gas-poor satellite galaxies are sometimes misclassified as centrals. However, the effects in the models are much weaker than observed. Mis-classification only influences the low-end tail of the SFR/M∗ distribution of neighbouring galaxies at large distances from the primary. The median and the upper percentiles of the SFR/M∗ distribution remain almost unchanged, which is in contradiction with the data. We speculate that the conformity between low-mass, gas-poor central galaxies and their distant neighbours may be a signature of “pre-heating” of the intergalactic gas at an earlier epoch. The smaller-scale conformity between high-mass, gas-rich central galaxies and their close neighbours may be a signature of ongoing gas accretion onto central galaxies in a minority of massive dark matter halos.
Color and Texture Features for Content Based Image Retrieval

Content based image retrieval (CBIR) has been one of the most important research areas in computer science for the last decade. A retrieval method which combines color and texture feature is proposed in this paper. According to the characteristic of the image texture, we can represent the information of texture by Multi Wavelet transform. We choose the color correlogram in RGB color space as the color feature. The experimental t results show that this method is more efficient than the traditional CBIR method based on the single visual feature and other methods combining color and texture.
Migrant Women, Care Work, and Women's Employment in Greece

Abstract This contribution is about women's paid and unpaid work in the context of rapid socioeconomic change in Greece between 1983 and 2008. Drawing on feminist analyses of women's employment and the care sector, it highlights the link between women's paid employment and the supply of affordable immigrant (female) labor in Greece in the sphere of care provision. It examines three issues: the acceleration of women's involvement in the paid labor force after 1990; the parallel influx of immigrants, a quarter of whom are women involved in service provision for households, into Greece; and finally, the “big picture” of the demand for care (both paid and unpaid, childcare as well as eldercare) in the context of an aging population and women's rising participation in paid work. The analysis highlights the key contribution of migrant women acting as catalysts for social change.
The mucosa-associated microbiota of PSC patients is characterized by low diversity and low abundance of uncultured Clostridiales II.

BACKGROUND Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a cholestatic liver disease that is strongly associated with a particular phenotype of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) with right-sided colonic involvement. In IBD, several studies demonstrated significant aberrancies in the intestinal microbiota in comparison with healthy controls. We aimed to explore the link between IBD and PSC by studying the intestinal mucosa-adherent microbiota in PSC and ulcerative colitis (UC) patients and noninflammatory controls. METHODS We included 12 PSC patients, 11 UC patients, and nine noninflammatory controls. The microbiota composition was determined in ileocecal biopsies from each patient by 16S rRNA-based analyses using the human intestinal tract chip. RESULTS Profiling of the mucosa-adherent microbiota of PSC patients, UC patients, and noninflammatory controls revealed that these groups did not cluster separately based on microbiota composition. At the genus-like level, the relative abundance of uncultured Clostridiales II was significantly lower (almost 2-fold) in PSC (0.26 ± 0.10%) compared with UC (0.41 ± 0.29%) and controls (0.49 ± 0.25%) (p = 0.02). Diversity and richness in the microbiota composition differed across the groups and were significantly lower in PSC patients compared with noninflammatory controls (p = 0.04 and p = 0.02, respectively). No significant differences were found in evenness. CONCLUSIONS Reduced amounts of uncultured Clostridiales II in PSC biopsies in comparison with UC and healthy controls can be considered a signature of a compromised gut, as we have recently observed that this group of as yet uncultured Firmicutes correlates significantly with health.
Evidence on the Relationship between Housing and Consumption in the United States: A State‐Level Analysis

We estimate the dynamic effects of U.S. housing market shocks on state-level spending and home prices from a dynamic common factor model, and identify housing demand and supply shocks using a sign-restrictions approach. While state-level spending and house prices gradually respond positively and persistently to aggregate housing demand shocks, there is significant variation across states in the magnitude of these responses. Cross-state regressions of the estimated responses on an index of mortgage market development suggest that spending in states with greater opportunities for home equity borrowing is more sensitive to housing demand shocks than in states with fewer opportunities, which is consistent with the prominence of a “collateral” channel over a “wealth” channel in explaining the link between housing and the overall economy.
Energy efficient transmission scheduling over Mars proximity links

We consider the scheduling of transmissions from an energy limited Mars lander to a Mars orbiter. Typically, the channel quality of the Mars proximity links is time-varying due to orbital dynamics, multi-path effects and the antenna positioning on the lander. Since the channel state determines the throughput obtained per unit of energy transmitted, it is desirable to select when, and at what data rate, to transmit based on channel conditions. In this paper we consider the dual problem of maximizing the throughput of a lander that has a limited amount of energy to be used for transmission; and minimizing the energy consumption used for transmission of data subject to delay constraints. In (Tarello et al., 2005) it was shown, using techniques from dynamic programming, that energy efficiency can be significantly improved through an adaptive rate and power allocation scheme. We apply the policies developed in (Tarello et al., 2005) to the Mars proximity link and compare them with scheduling algorithms presently in use for proximity links. Our simulations, using channel measurement data obtained from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter and the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project, show over an order of magnitude increase in throughput and decrease in energy consumption through the use of the dynamic programming based rate and power adaptation scheme
An Examination of Georgia Middle School Teachers' and Principals' Beliefs about the NCTM Standards, Factors Influencing the Change Process, and the Role of Identified Principals during the Mathematics Reform Effort in Georgia

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) recommended that schools implement its Standards because they believed that the Standards improved students' mathematical ability. Every mathematics teacher in the state of Georgia had the opportunity to attend or be a part of a workshop, conference, or project involving suggestions for implementing the Standards in the classroom The problem for Georgia educators was to determine if these Standards were being perceived by principals and teachers, the key change agents, as having merit enough to change their views of how mathematics should be taught. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to examine Georgia middle school principals' and teachers' beliefs about the NCTM Standards and to investigate the process that took place in identified schools making changes in mathematics curriculum and instruction related to the NCTM Standards. The study involved the use of two survey instruments, the Standards Belief Instrument (SBI) and the Foley Change Questionnaire (FCQ). The SBI was sent to the total population of 275 Georgia middle schools with a 66% return rate. The FCQ was sent to schools identified by experts in the mathematics field. Fifteen schools participated in the questionnaire with a 100% return rate from teachers and an 80% return rate from the administrators. The results of the study relative to the research questions indicated some noteworthy findings. The principals and teachers overwhelming agreed with each other with regard to the NCTM Standard items on the SBI. Principals and teachers agreed with each other on 13 of the 16 items The different gradelevel teachers also agreed with each other on the items. The principals and teachers disagreed with the NCTM Standards on 5 of the items. When examining the mathematics reform etfort in Georgia, it was found all the initiatives were done at the system level
The global simulation clock as the frequency domain experiment index

Frequency domain simulation experiments involve inducing sinusoidal variations in the input process. System sensitivities of the output can be detected in the frequency domain. The selection of an approprite index for these oscillations is critical in running such experiments. The index for the sinusoidal variations has typically been a discrete index such as customer or part number in queueing and production systems respectively. In this paper, the use of the global simulation clock as the index is discussed.
Optimizing addition for sub-threshold logic

Digital circuits operating at subthreshold-voltage levels can achieve extremely low energy consumption. Typical applications include sensor processors with modest processing requirements that must run for long intervals on a low energy supply. The design goal is to minimise the total energy required for a processing task. Optimal architectures strike a balance between leakage and dynamic dissipation: if a unit is too slow, leakage energy is wasted throughout the system; however increasing the unit's speed may cost increased dynamic dissipation and leakage within the unit. We examine this trade-off through the simulation of a variety of adder architectures. The results show that for a 180 nm process, system leakage dominates adder switching energy. For all but the smallest systems, when the adder is on the critical timing path, overall energy consumption is minimized by choosing a fast tree adder. The results also show that high valency tree adders perform well at subthreshold levels in this process.
Sulfonamide Resistance Genes (sul) M in Extended Spectrum Beta Lactamase (ESBL) and Non-ESBL Producing Escherichia coli Isolated From Iranian Hospitals

Background: Extensive use of cotrimoxazole has been associated with increasing level of Escherichia coli resistance. Objectives: In the current study, we focused on assessing the prevalence of E. coli resistance to cotrimoxazole and frequency of its associated genes. Materials and Methods: One-hundred and forty-four E. coli isolates were identified during March 2007 to April 2012 at Ilam hospitals and Milad (Tehran) hospital. Antibiotic susceptibility for screening of resistance isolates was done by the Kirby-Bauer method. The sul1, sul2, sul3, dfrA1, dfrA5, int1, blaTEM, blaSHV and CTX-M genes were detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification. Plasmid curing was done for identifying correlations between resistance genes and plasmids. Results: Amongst the 144 E. coli isolates, seventy-two (50%) Extended Spectrum Beta Lactamase (ESBL)-producing and seventy-two (50%) non-ESBL-producing E. coli isolates were identified; eighty-seven isolates (60.41%) were resistant to cotrimoxazole. Frequencies of sul1, sul2 and sul3, were 81% (116 isolates), 67% (96 isolates) and 2.29% (three isolates), respectively. Furthermore, 50.57% (72 isolates) had sul1 and sul2, 2.29% (3 isolates) contained sul2 and sul3, and 2.29% (three isolates) contained sul1, sul2 and sul3 genes, simultaneously. Thirty-four (39.1%) of the isolates had the dfrA1 gene. Five (5.7%) of the isolates had the dfrA5 gene. Sixty-eight (78.2%) strains contained the int1 gene. Furthermore, dfrA1 and dfrA5 were present in three (3.4%) of the isolates. The results showed that of the ESBL-producing isolates, 85.2% (n = 122), 53.2% (n = 76) and 26.1% (n = 37) were blaTEM, blaSHV and CTX-M harboring isolates, respectively. Conclusions: Our study indicated a high frequency of cotrimoxazole resistance gene in E. coli isolates from Ilam and Tehran (Milad) hospitals, and sul genes had a major role in cotrimoxazole resistance of these isolates.
Multiple myeloma cell-derived microvesicles are enriched in CD147 expression and enhance tumor cell proliferation

Multiple myeloma (MM) is characterized by the clonal expansion of malignant plasma cells within the bone marrow. There is a growing literature that tumor cells release biologically active microvesicles (MVs) that modify both local and distant microenvironments. In this study, our goals were to determine if MM cells release MVs, and if so, begin to characterize their biologic activity. Herein we present clear evidence that not only do both patient MM cells and human MM cell lines (HMCLs) release MVs, but that these MVs stimulate MM cell growth. Of interest, MM-derived MVs were enriched with the biologically active form of CD147, a transmembrane molecule previously shown by us to be crucial for MM cell proliferation. Using MVs isolated from HMCLs stably transfected with a CD147-GFP fusion construct (CD147GFP), we observed binding and internalization of MV-derived CD147 with HMCLs. Cells with greater CD147GFP internalization proliferated at a higher rate than did cells with less CD147GFP association. Lastly, MVs obtained from CD147 downregulated HMCLs were attenuated in their ability to stimulate HMCL proliferation. In summary, this study demonstrates the significance of MV shedding and MV-mediated intercellular communication on malignant plasma cell proliferation, and identifies the role of MV-enriched CD147 in this process.