Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Voice Activity Detection. Fundamentals and Speech Recognition System Robustness

An important drawback affecting most of the speech processing systems is the environmental noise and its harmful effect on the system performance. Examples of such systems are the new wireless communications voice services or digital hearing aid devices. In speech recognition, there are still technical barriers inhibiting such systems from meeting the demands of modern applications. Numerous noise reduction techniques have been developed to palliate the effect of the noise on the system performance and often require an estimate of the noise statistics obtained by means of a precise voice activity detector (VAD). Speech/non-speech detection is an unsolved problem in speech processing and affects numerous applications including robust speech recognition (Karray and Marting, 2003; Ramirez et al. 2003), discontinuous transmission (ITU, 1996; ETSI, 1999), real-time speech transmission on the Internet (Sangwan et al., 2002) or combined noise reduction and echo cancellation schemes in the context of telephony (Basbug et al., 2004; Gustafsson et al., 2002). The speech/non-speech classification task is not as trivial as it appears, and most of the VAD algorithms fail when the level of background noise increases. During the last decade, numerous researchers have developed different strategies for detecting speech on a noisy signal (Sohn et al., 1999; Cho and Kondoz, 2001; Gazor and Zhang, 2003, Armani et al., 2003) and have evaluated the influence of the VAD effectiveness on the performance of speech processing systems (Bouquin-Jeannes and Faucon, 1995). Most of the approaches have focussed on the development of robust algorithms with special attention being paid to the derivation and study of noise robust features and decision rules (Woo et al., 2000; Li et al., 2002; Marzinzik and Kollmeier, 2002). The different VAD methods include those based on energy thresholds (Woo et al., 2000), pitch detection (Chengalvarayan, 1999), spectrum analysis (Marzinzik and Kollmeier, 2002), zero-crossing rate (ITU, 1996), periodicity measure (Tucker, 1992), higher order statistics in the LPC residual domain (Nemer et al., 2001) or combinations of different features (ITU, 1993; ETSI, 1999; Tanyer and Ozer, 2000). This chapter shows a comprehensive approximation to the main challenges in voice activity detection, the different solutions that have been reported in a complete review of the state of the art and the evaluation frameworks that are normally used. The application of VADs for speech coding, speech enhancement and robust speech recognition systems is shown and discussed. Three different VAD methods are described and compared to standardized and
Learning locomotion skills using DeepRL: does the choice of action space matter?

The use of deep reinforcement learning allows for high-dimensional state descriptors, but little is known about how the choice of action representation impacts learning and the resulting performance. We compare the impact of four different action parameterizations (torques, muscle-activations, target joint angles, and target joint-angle velocities) in terms of learning time, policy robustness, motion quality, and policy query rates. Our results are evaluated on a gait-cycle imitation task for multiple planar articulated figures and multiple gaits. We demonstrate that the local feedback provided by higher-level action parameterizations can significantly impact the learning, robustness, and motion quality of the resulting policies.
Independent impacts of age and hearing loss on spatial release in a complex auditory environment

Listeners in complex auditory environments can benefit from the ability to use a variety of spatial and spectrotemporal cues for sound source segregation. Probing these abilities is an essential part of gaining a more complete understanding of why listeners differ in navigating the auditory environment. Two fundamental processes that can impact the auditory systems of individual listeners are aging and hearing loss. One difficulty with uncovering the independent effects of age and hearing loss on spatial release is the commonly observed phenomenon of age-related hearing loss. In order to reveal the effects of aging on spatial hearing, it is essential to develop testing methods that reduce the influence of hearing loss on the outcomes. The statistical power needed for such testing generally requires a larger number of participants than can easily be tested using traditional behavioral methods. This work describes the development and validation of a rapid method by which listeners can be categorized in terms of their ability to use spatial and spectrotemporal cues to separate competing speech streams. Results show that when age and audibility are not covarying, age alone can be shown to substantially reduce spatial release from masking. These data support the hypothesis that aging, independent of an individual's hearing threshold, can result in changes in the cortical and/or subcortical structures essential for spatial hearing.
Resonance phenomena of photopic and scotopic receptors.

The eye was illuminated by white light for 2 seconds, and then the electrical excitability of the eye was measured by applying electrical square pulses of varying frequencies to the eye for 0.5 seconds. Percentage increases in electrical excitability were denoted by ζ and plotted as ordinates against the time after the end of pre-illumination. 1. ζ-time curves thus obtained were compared with those deter-mined by a single pulse of 0.1 second, using colored lights for pre-illumina-tion. It was found that changes in frequency of stimulating currents have the same effect as color changes of pre-illuminating lights upon the shape of ζ-time curves. 2. When red light was used for pre-illumination ζ-time curves showed a maximum at 1 second, irrespective of frequencies of stimulating currents. ζ-frequency curves showed a maximum at 55 cps. Since red light of such extremely long wave-lengths as used in this experiment excites red receptors only and causes the supernormal electrical excitability of this kind of receptor, the ζ-frequency curve having a maximum at 55 cps. represents a resonance curve of the red receptors. Resonance curves for green and blue receptors determined in a similar way showed a maximum at 42 and 36 cps. respectively. 3. Rods were selectively excited by exposing the extreme periphery of the retina or by using very weak light below color-threshold for pre-illumination. The ζ-values thus obtained were plotted against the fre-quencies of stimulating currents. The curve so obtained represents a resonance curve of rods, and shows a definite maximum at 20 cps. 4. The relation between the minima of strength-frequency curves obtained by Motokawa and by Abe and the resonance frequencies deter. mined in the present experiments was discussed.
SBA: A software package for generic sparse bundle adjustment

Bundle adjustment constitutes a large, nonlinear least-squares problem that is often solved as the last step of feature-based structure and motion estimation computer vision algorithms to obtain optimal estimates. Due to the very large number of parameters involved, a general purpose least-squares algorithm incurs high computational and memory storage costs when applied to bundle adjustment. Fortunately, the lack of interaction among certain subgroups of parameters results in the corresponding Jacobian being sparse, a fact that can be exploited to achieve considerable computational savings. This article presents sba, a publicly available C/C++ software package for realizing generic bundle adjustment with high efficiency and flexibility regarding parameterization.
Semantic Knowledge Management System

—The scholarly activities query, retrieval, maintenance and management of institution repository data is often difficult, because repositories are loaded with documents in a myriad of formats generated by an Institution. The current data retrieval techniques that are used in institutional repositories make use of indexing and keywords in order to retrieve information w hich results in reduced accuracy in matching user requests. This paper proposes a system called SEMKNOW 1 , which will enable machine involvement to enhance the efficiency of information seeking process through flexible query option and well conceptually organized structure of documents inside the repository for researchers. Adding semantic technologies to the educational repository of the institution will add support for the functions carried out by the various roles involved in know ledge development and dissemination in academic institutions.
Platelet Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor is a Potential Mediator of Transfusion-Related Acute Lung Injury

Objective The occurrence of non-hemolytic transfusion reactions is highest with platelet and plasma administration. Some of these reactions are characterized by endothelial leak, especially transfusion related acute lung injury (TRALI). Elevated concentrations of inflammatory mediators secreted by contaminating leukocytes during blood product storage may contribute to such reactions, but platelet-secreted mediators may also contribute. We hypothesized that platelet storage leads to accumulation of the endothelial permeability mediator vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and that intravascular administration of exogenous VEGF leads to extensive binding to its lung receptors. Methods Single donor, leukocyte-reduced apheresis platelet units were sampled over 5 days of storage. VEGF protein content of the centrifuged supernatant was determined by ELISA, and the potential contribution of VEGF from contaminating leukocytes was quantified. Isolated-perfused rat lungs were used to study the uptake of radiolabeled VEGF administered intravascularly, and the effect of unlabeled VEGF on lung leak. Results There was a time-dependent release of VEGF into the plasma fraction of the platelet concentrates (62 ± 9 pg/ml on day one, 149 ± 23 pg/ml on day 5; mean ± SEM, p<0.01, n=8) and a contribution by contaminating leukocytes was excluded. Exogenous 125I-VEGF bound avidly and specifically to the lung vasculature, and unlabeled VEGF in the lung perfusate caused vascular leak. Conclusion Rising concentrations of VEGF occur during storage of single donor platelet concentrates due to platelet secretion or disintegration, but not due to leukocyte contamination. Exogenous VEGF at these concentrations rapidly binds to its receptors in the lung vessels. At higher VEGF concentrations, VEGF causes vascular leak in uninjured lungs. These data provide further evidence that VEGF may contribute to the increased lung permeability seen in TRALI associated with platelet products.
The role of SRC1 and SRC2 in steroid-induced SDF1 expression in normal and ectopic endometrium.

To compare the expression patterns of steroid receptor coactivators (SRCs) and steroid-induced stromal cell-derived factor 1 (CXCL12 (SDF1)) in normal and ectopic endometrium and to explore the roles of NCOA1 (SRC1) and NCOA2 (SRC2) in the steroid-induced CXCL12 expression in normal and ectopic endometrial stromal cells (ESCs). The NCOA1, NCOA2, NCOA3 (SRC3), and CXCL12 (SDF1)α mRNA levels in normal and ectopic endometrium were analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR. Steroid-induced CXCL12 expression was detected by the ELISA method and the chemotactic activity of conditioned supernatant to monocyte was assessed by the Boyden chamber method before and after the silencing of NCOA1 or NCOA2 with siRNA in normal and ectopic ESCs. The expression of NCOA1 and CXCL12 in ectopic endometrium was significantly greater than that in normal endometrium in the secretory phase. Progesterone (P4) was able to significantly inhibit estradiol (E2)-stimulated CXCL12 expression in normal and ectopic ESCs. The inhibitory rate of P4 in ectopic ESCs at 72 and 96 h was significantly lower than that in normal ESCs. Silencing of NCOA1 but not NCOA2 significantly reduced the E2-induced CXCL12 expression in normal and ectopic ESCs. The ability of P4 to inhibit E2-induced CXCL12 expression and monocyte chemotaxis in normal and ectopic ESCs was significantly attenuated when NCOA2 was silenced. NCOA1 plays a necessary role in E2-induced CXCL12 expression and NCOA2 is required for P4 to inhibit the E2-induced CXCL12 production in normal and ectopic endometrium.
Evaluation of sensitivity and specificity of two crustacean biochemical biomarkers

Biochemical biomarkers are increasingly used for environmental assessment. Although the emphasis has been on vertebrate biomarkers, invertebrates biomarkers have been developed as well. This study evaluated the usefulness of biomarker responses of freshwater invertebrates by comparing the sensitivity and specificity of endpoints at three levels of biological organization: biochemical, physiological, and individual. The study focused on the epibenthic amphipod Gammarus pulex L. , and the end points were cholinesterase (ChE) and glutathione‐S‐transferase (GST) activity, feeding inhibition, and mortality. Chemicals representing five major classes of toxic chemicals were assessed, including zinc, linear alkylbenzene sulphonate (LAS; surfactant), lindane (organochlorine), pirimiphos‐methyl (organophosphorus), and permethrin (pyrethroid). Lethality was the least sensitive endpoint, with 96‐h LC50 values ranging from 2.78 μg/L for permethrin to 6.31 mg/L for LAS. Comparison of the biochemical biomarkers and the sublethal feeding rate assay indicated that whereas ChE inhibition was a specific indicator of organophosphate exposure, the biochemical assay was more than 13‐fold less sensitive than the feeding rate assay. The GST biomarker performed with greater sensitivity but with lower specificity compared with the ChE biomarker. However, only on exposure to lindane did the GST biomarker marginally outperform the feeding rate assay in terms of sensitivity. Feeding inhibition is both a general and a sensitive (LC50, <3%) indicator for exposure to a range of chemicals. The Gammarus sp. ChE biomarker may have utility in providing a diagnostic and rapid indicator of organophosphate exposure, but evidence from this and other studies questions the sensitivity of this biomarker in predicting sublethal, higher‐order effects. The GST biomarker may provide a rapid and sensitive indicator for toxicant exposure, but it has limited use as a diagnostic tool and provides only limited improvement in sensitivity over more ecologically relevant sublethal end points (e.g., feeding rate, growth rate).
A joint prosody evaluation of French text-to-speech synthesis systems

This paper reports on prosodic evaluation in the framework of the EVALDA/EvaSy project for text-to-speech (TTS) evaluation for the French language. Prosody is evaluated using a prosodic transplantation paradigm. Intonation contours generated by the synthesis systems are transplanted on a common segmental content. Both diphone based synthesis and natural speech are used. Five TTS systems are tested along with natural voice. The test is a paired preference test (with 19 subjects), using 7 sentences. The results indicate that natural speech obtains consistently the first rank (with an average preference rate of 80%), followed by a selection based system (72%) and a diphone based system (58%). However, rather large variations in judgements are observed among subjects and sentences, and in some cases synthetic speech is preferred to natural speech. These results show the remarkable improvement achieved by the best selection based synthesis systems in terms of prosody. In this way; a new paradigm for evaluation of the prosodic component of TTS systems has been successfully demonstrated.
Novel approach for speech recognition by using self — Organized maps

The method of self-organizing maps (SOM) is a method of exploratory data analysis used for clustering and projecting multi-dimensional data into a lower-dimensional space to reveal hidden structure of the data. The Self-Organizing Feature Maps (SOFMs) [11] is a class of neural networks capable of recognizing the main features of the data they are trained on. There is extensive literature on its biological and mathematical concepts and even more on its implementation in a variety of areas including medicine, finance, chaos and data mining in general [4,2]. The aim of this research is to implement a self-organizing neural network based technique for speech recognition. The Mean-SOM performance for the feature Intensity is obtained maximum as 98.17%. The Median-SOM performance for the feature Intensity is obtained maximum as 98.54%.
The discovery of structural form

Algorithms for finding structure in data have become increasingly important both as tools for scientific data analysis and as models of human learning, yet they suffer from a critical limitation. Scientists discover qualitatively new forms of structure in observed data: For instance, Linnaeus recognized the hierarchical organization of biological species, and Mendeleev recognized the periodic structure of the chemical elements. Analogous insights play a pivotal role in cognitive development: Children discover that object category labels can be organized into hierarchies, friendship networks are organized into cliques, and comparative relations (e.g., “bigger than” or “better than”) respect a transitive order. Standard algorithms, however, can only learn structures of a single form that must be specified in advance: For instance, algorithms for hierarchical clustering create tree structures, whereas algorithms for dimensionality-reduction create low-dimensional spaces. Here, we present a computational model that learns structures of many different forms and that discovers which form is best for a given dataset. The model makes probabilistic inferences over a space of graph grammars representing trees, linear orders, multidimensional spaces, rings, dominance hierarchies, cliques, and other forms and successfully discovers the underlying structure of a variety of physical, biological, and social domains. Our approach brings structure learning methods closer to human abilities and may lead to a deeper computational understanding of cognitive development.
Genetic Labeling Reveals Novel Cellular Targets of Schizophrenia Susceptibility Gene: Distribution of GABA and Non-GABA ErbB4-Positive Cells in Adult Mouse Brain

Neuregulin 1 (NRG1) and its receptor ErbB4 are schizophrenia risk genes. NRG1-ErbB4 signaling plays a critical role in neural development and regulates neurotransmission and synaptic plasticity. Nevertheless, its cellular targets remain controversial. ErbB4 was thought to express in excitatory neurons, although recent studies disputed this view. Using mice that express a fluorescent protein under the promoter of the ErbB4 gene, we determined in what cells ErbB4 is expressed and their identity. ErbB4 was widely expressed in the mouse brain, being highest in amygdala and cortex. Almost all ErbB4-positive cells were GABAergic in cortex, hippocampus, basal ganglia, and most of amygdala in neonatal and adult mice, suggesting GABAergic transmission as a major target of NRG1-ErbB4 signaling in these regions. Non-GABAergic, ErbB4-positive cells were present in thalamus, hypothalamus, midbrain, and hindbrain. In particular, ErbB4 is expressed in serotoninergic neurons of raphe nuclei but not in norepinephrinergic neurons of the locus ceruleus. In hypothalamus, ErbB4 is present in neurons that express oxytocin. Finally, ErbB4 is expressed in a group of cells in the subcortical areas that are positive for S100 calcium binding protein β. These results identify novel cellular targets of NRG1-ErbB4 signaling.
Maize (Zea mays L.) Response to Nitrogen Fertilizer under Drought Stress at Vegetative and Reproductive Stages

In the sub-tropics, water and nitrogen are the most important factors limiting the grain yield of maize. The effect of nitrogen (N) rates and drought stress at different growth stages of maize were investigated. Nitrogen treatments consisted of 100, 150, and 200 kg N ha-1 from the urea source while water stress treatments were composed of irrigation-off since the early 10-leaf stage to emergence of 50% tassel (vegetative), irrigation-off since the emergence of 50% tassel to the end of pollination (reproductive), and well watered plots. Drought condition at both vegetative and reproductive growth stages reduced grain yield 35% and 45%, respectively. Number of kernel per ear and kernel weight also reduced significantly with drought stress especially in reproductive stage. The highest response of maize yield to N fertilizer was observed in treatment with optimal irrigation; however, the increase of N particularly in vegetative stress somewhat led to decrease of drought stress effects on grain yield. Drought stress at vegetative and reproductive stages increased resource limitation with the rate of 67.1% and 77.25%, respectively. Drought stress at both stages caused significant decrease in chlorophyll content and leaf relative water content. In general, the highest negative effect of drought stress on grain yield and physiological traits occurred at reproductive stage and increasing the amount of nitrogen cannot compensate these reductions.
Learning from the neighbours.

[Figure][1] > There is an evil tendency underlying all our technology—the tendency to do what is reasonable even when it isn’t any good. > > Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Earlier this summer a middle-aged man with a history of degenerative disk disease in
A Reading Comprehension Corpus for Machine Translation Evaluation

Effectively assessing Natural Language Processing output tasks is a challenge for research in the area. In the case of Machine Translation (MT), automatic metrics are usually preferred over human evaluation, given time and budget constraints.However, traditional automatic metrics (such as BLEU) are not reliable for absolute quality assessment of documents, often producing similar scores for documents translated by the same MT system.For scenarios where absolute labels are necessary for building models, such as document-level Quality Estimation, these metrics can not be fully trusted. In this paper, we introduce a corpus of reading comprehension tests based on machine translated documents, where we evaluate documents based on answers to questions by fluent speakers of the target language. We describe the process of creating such a resource, the experiment design and agreement between the test takers. Finally, we discuss ways to convert the reading comprehension test into document-level quality scores.