Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis and automatic recognition of Human BeatBox sounds: A comparative study

“Human BeatBox” (HBB) is a newly expanding contemporary singing style where the vocalist imitates drum beats percussive sounds as well as pitched musical instrument sounds. Drum sounds typically use a notation based on plosives and fricatives, and instrument sounds cover vocalisations that go beyond spoken language vowels. HBB hence constitutes an interesting use case for expanding techniques initially developed for speech processing, with the goal of automatically annotating performances as well as developing new sound effects dedicated to HBB performers. In this paper, we investigate three complementary aspects of HBB analysis: pitch tracking, onset detection, and automatic recognition of sounds and instruments. As a first step, a new high-quality HBB audio database has been recorded, carefully segmented and annotated manually to obtain a ground truth reference. Various pitch tracking and onset detection methods are then compared and assessed against this reference. Finally, Hidden Markov Models are evaluated, together with an exploration of their parameters space, for the automatic recognition of different types of sounds. This study exhibits very encouraging experimental results.
Identification of Children with Motor Coordination Problems

This study focuses on identification of children with motor coordination problems and investigates whether the incidence of children with such problems in a normal school setting in Norway is comparable to that found in other countries using the same tests and criteria. The study also examines whether there would be any agreement between two motor tests, the Test of Motor Proficiency (TMP) and the Test of Motor Impairment (TOMI), and teachers’ judgment in identifying clumsiness among 360 children 10 years of age. The results showed that while the three different assessment methods identified about the same number of children with such problems (5-5.6%), each measure identified a somewhat different set of children. The lack of agreement demonstrates the difficulty in assessing subtle motor coordination problems or clumsiness.
The valosin‐containing protein is a novel repressor of cardiomyocyte hypertrophy induced by pressure overload

Hypertension‐induced left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is an independent risk factor for heart failure. Regression of LVH has emerged as a major goal in the treatment of hypertensive patients. Here, we tested our hypothesis that the valosin‐containing protein (VCP), an ATPase associate protein, is a novel repressor of cardiomyocyte hypertrophy under the pressure overload stress. Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) was determined by echocardiography in 4‐month male spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) vs. age‐matched normotensive Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats. VCP expression was found to be significantly downregulated in the left ventricle (LV) tissues from SHRs vs. WKY rats. Pressure overload was induced by transverse aortic constriction (TAC) in wild‐type (WT) mice. At the end of 2 weeks, mice with TAC developed significant LVH whereas the cardiac function remained unchanged. A significant reduction of VCP at both the mRNA and protein levels in hypertrophic LV tissue was found in TAC WT mice compared to sham controls. Valosin‐containing protein VCP expression was also observed to be time‐ and dose‐dependently reduced in vitro in isolated neonatal rat cardiomyocytes upon the treatment of angiotensin II. Conversely, transgenic (TG) mice with cardiac‐specific overexpression of VCP showed a significant repression in TAC‐induced LVH vs. litter‐matched WT controls upon 2‐week TAC. TAC‐induced activation of the mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling observed in WT mice LVs was also significantly blunted in VCP TG mice. In conclusion, VCP acts as a novel repressor that is able to prevent cardiomyocyte hypertrophy from pressure overload by modulating the mTORC1 signaling pathway.
ATP Analog Enhances the Actions of a Heat Shock Protein 90 Inhibitor in Multiple Myeloma Cells

Heat shock protein (HSP) 90 regulates client oncoprotein maturation. The chaperone function of HSP90 is blocked by 17-N-allylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin (17-AAG), although it results in transcription and translation of antiapoptotic HSP proteins. Using three myeloma cell lines, we tested whether inhibition of transcription/translation of HSP or client proteins will enhance 17-AAG-mediated cytotoxicity. 8-Chloro-adenosine (8-Cl-Ado), currently in clinical trials, inhibits bioenergy production, mRNA transcription, and protein translation and was combined with 17-AAG. 17-AAG treatment resulted in HSP transcript and protein level elevation. In the combination, 8-Cl-Ado did not abrogate HSP mRNA and protein induction. HSP90 requires ATP to stabilize client proteins; hence, expression of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), Raf-1, and Akt was analyzed. 17-AAG alone resulted in <10% change in STAT3, Raf-1, and Akt protein levels, whereas no change was observed for 4E-BP1. In contrast, the combination treatment resulted in a >50% decrease in client protein levels and marked hypophosphorylation of 4E-BP1. 8-Cl-Ado alone resulted in a <30% decrease of client proteins and 4E-BP1 hypophosphorylation. 8-Cl-Ado combined with 17-AAG resulted in more than additive cytotoxicity. In conclusion, 8-Cl-Ado, which targets transcription, translation, and cellular bioenergy, enhanced 17-AAG-mediated cytotoxicity in myeloma cells.
Preparation of single cells from aggregated Taxus suspension cultures for population analysis

A method for the isolation of single plant cells from Taxus suspension cultures has been developed for the analysis of single cells via rapid throughput techniques such as flow cytometry. Several cell wall specific enzymes, such as pectinase, pectolyase Y‐23, macerozyme, Driselase®, and cellulase were tested for efficacy in producing single cell suspensions. The method was optimized for single cell yield, viability, time, and representivity of aggregated cell cultures. The best combination for single cell isolation was found to be 0.5% (w/v) pectolyase Y‐23 and 0.04% (w/v) cellulase. High viability (>95%) and high yields of single cell aggregates (>90%) were obtained following 4 hours of digestion for four separate Taxus cell lines. In addition, methyl jasmonate elicitation (200 μM) was found to have no effect on three of the four tested Taxus lines. Isolated single cells were statistically similar to untreated cell cultures for peroxidase activity (model cell wall protein) and paclitaxel content (secondary metabolite produced in Taxus cell cultures). In comparison, protoplasts showed marked changes in both peroxidase activity and paclitaxel content as compared to untreated cultures. The use of flow cytometry was demonstrated with isolated cells that were found to have > 99% viability upon staining with fluorescein diacetate. The development of a method for the isolation of single plant cells will allow the study of population dynamics and culture variability on a single cell level for the development of population models of plant cell cultures and secondary metabolism. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A Relational Syntax-Semantics Interface Based on Dependency Grammar

We propose a syntax-semantics interface that realises the mapping between syntax and semantics as a relation and does not make functionality assumptions in either direction. This interface is stated in terms of Extensible Dependency Grammar (XDG), a grammar formalism we newly specify. XDG's constraint-based parser supports the concurrent flow of information between any two levels of linguistic representation, even when only partial analyses are available. This generalises the concept of underspecification.
Structural changes of the retina in retinal vein occlusion--imaging and quantification with optical coherence tomography.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE To evaluate the potential of optical coherence tomography (OCT) for imaging and quantifying structural changes in the retinal architecture following venous occlusive disease. PATIENTS AND METHODS We studied 20 patients with retinal venous occlusive disease: 5 patients suffered from branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO), and 15 from central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO). Patients with CRVO were studied within 72 hours after the first onset of symptoms. Patients were examined by OCT after a complete ophthalmologic examination including fluorescein angiography. A standard set of linear scans through the center of fixation and individual scans over areas of special interest were performed. Scans were qualitatively evaluated and quantitative measurements were performed on single A-scans at 5 locations of linear scans. Measurements were taken in the center of fixation, at the foveal rim, and at the edge of the scan. We measured total retinal thickness, thickness of cystoid spaces, and thickness of the highly reflective outer band. RESULTS OCT produced detailed images of retinal thickening, intra- and subretinal hemorrhage, intra- and subretinal fluid accumulation, and formation of intraretinal cystoid spaces. Quantitative evaluation revealed a mean central retinal thickness of 274 +/- 181 microm (72-760 microm) in patients with central retinal vein occlusion. Visual acuity did not correlate with central or extrafoveal retinal thickness. CONCLUSION Optical coherence tomography is a useful imaging technique for studying changes of retinal architecture following venous occlusive disease. Even minor changes like localized subretinal fluid accumulation or beginning epiretinal membrane formation can be visualized in detail. In contrast to other diseases like diabetic maculopathy, quantitative assessment of macular thickness does not correlate to visual acuity. Nevertheless, because of detailed imaging, OCT might become a useful tool in the follow-up and treatment of individual patients.
The face-sensitive N170 encodes social category information

Prominent models of face perception posit that the encoding of social categories begins after initial structural encoding has completed. In contrast, we hypothesized that social category encoding may occur simultaneously with structural encoding. While event-related potentials were recorded, participants categorized the sex of sex-typical and sex-atypical faces. Results indicated that the face-sensitive right N170, a component involved in structural encoding, was larger for sex-typical relative to sex-atypical faces. Moreover, its amplitude predicted the efficiency of sex-category judgments. The right P1 component also peaked earlier for sex-typical faces. These findings show that social category encoding and the extraction of lower-level face information operate in parallel, suggesting that they may be accomplished by a single dynamic process rather than two separate mechanisms.
A simple and effective weighted phrase extraction for machine translation adaptation

The task of domain-adaptation attempts to exploit data mainly drawn from one domain (e.g. news) to maximize the performance on the test domain (e.g. weblogs). In previous work, weighting the training instances was used for filtering dissimilar data. We extend this by incorporating the weights directly into the standard phrase training procedure of statistical machine translation (SMT). This allows the SMT system to make the decision whether to use a phrase translation pair or not, a more methodological way than discarding phrase pairs completely when using filtering. Furthermore, we suggest a combined filtering and weighting procedure to achieve better results while reducing the phrase table size. The proposed methods are evaluated in the context of Arabicto-English translation on various conditions, where significant improvements are reported when using the suggested weighted phrase training. The weighting method also improves over filtering, and the combined filtering and weighting is better than a standalone filtering method. Finally, we experiment with mixture modeling, where additional improvements are reported when using weighted phrase extraction over a variety of baselines.
Petrology and geochemistry of lavas

“This continuity disappears, however, if one considers individual parts of the [Central American] chain and examines separate groups of volcanoes within a restricted volcanic field. It then becomes apparent that the continuity of the province as a whole is the result of grouping excessively large segments of the chain. ” A.R. McBirney: Compositional variations in Cenozoic calcalkaline suites of Central America. Intern. Upper Mantle Sci. Rept. 16, 1969.
The effects of ‘ecstasy’ (MDMA) on visuospatial memory performance: findings from a systematic review with meta-analysis (Running head: Ecstasy and visuospatial memory: meta-analyses)

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The Rodney L . White Center for Financial Research CEO Wage Dynamics : Evidence from a Learning Model

Good news about a CEO’s ability creates a positive surplus. Empirically, CEOs capture most of this surplus by bidding up their pay. However, CEOs bear almost none of the negative surplus resulting from bad news about ability. These results are consistent with the optimal contracting benchmark of Harris and Hölmstrom (1982). Since CEOs do not capture their entire surplus, CEO ability matters more for shareholders, which is supported by predictions and data on unanticipated CEO deaths. The model helps explain the sensitivity of CEO pay to lagged returns, and also the changes in return volatility around CEO successions. * The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, luket@wharton.upenn. edu. I am grateful for comments from Chris Armstrong, Philip Bond, Alex Edmans, Itay Goldstein, Wayne Guay, Evgeny Lyandres (discussant), Bang Nguyen, Kasper Nielsen, Gordon Phillips (discussant), Michael Roberts, Motohiro Yogo, and seminar participants at Duke University, the FIRS Conference 2010, the Rothschild Caesarea Center Conference 2010, University of Amsterdam, University of Pennsylvania, University of Utah, and Yale University. I am grateful for financial support from the Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.
Use of Enzymes in DDGS Diets for Poultry and Swine Introduction

Plant carbohydrates can be classified into three categories: 1) simple sugars and their conjugates (glucose, fructose, etc.); 2) storage reserve compounds (starch); and 3) structural carbohydrates (cellulose, hemicellulose, etc.). Simple sugars and storage compounds are primarily digested in the upper gastrointestinal tract, although not completely, while structural carbohydrates are only partially degraded by the microflora in the cecum and large intestine (Slominski, 1991). Because most of the starch is removed from corn during ethanol production, the resultant co-product, dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS), contains concentrated levels of protein, minerals, and fiber (Spiehs et al., 2002; Pedersen et al., 2007; Anderson, 2009). With pigs’ ability to utilize moderate, but not high levels of fiber in the nursery (Whitney and Shurson, 2004; Weber et al., 2008) and finisher (Whitney et al., 2006) period, there is a need to increase the ability of the pig to utilize the energy associated with the structural carbohydrates contained in corn-derived co-products (Muley et al., 2007). With the large amount of corn being utilized for ethanol production in the U.S., the amount of high fiber corn co-products available for animal feeds continues to increase. In order to minimize the cost associated with dietary energy and amino acids, it is essential that we develop and evaluate technologies that increase digestibility of energy and other nutrients. Use of exogenous enzymes is one of these technologies that offer promise for improving the nutritional value of high fiber corn co-products, particularly DDGS.
Public Reaction to Crime in the Streets

QOMETIME during the 1960s it is not easy to pin-point just ? 3 when crime emerged as a predominant public issue. By the end of the decade, some polls revealed that the public ranked crime as the most serious problem facing our society above the Vietnam war, race relations, and inflation. Certainly there have been other times in our history when this issue has aroused great anxiety, and this is hardly the first time that politicians have exploited America's chronic apprehension that the moral order is breaking down. Nevertheless, at least in its magnitude, the current reaction to crime is unprecedented. Two different explanations have been advanced to account for the sharp rise in public concern. Some critics have argued that the wave of anxiety is largely an irrational reaction to the rapid social change that has taken place during the past decade. According to this interpretation, fear of crime is a reverberation from racial and economic conflict that has surfaced over the past ten years. Behind the concern about crime is resentment of social change and resistance to further alterations in the status quo. In the vernacular of the mass media, fear of crime is the symptom of the silent majority's lashing back. Not everyone has accepted this explanation. Some commentators are convinced that the public's reaction to crime is largely justified. They note that the rate of crime? according to official statistics, has been steadily increasing over the past ten years. Moreover, people are especially frightened by crimes of violence
Power and Area-Efficient Unified Computation of Vector and Elementary Functions for Handheld 3D Graphics Systems

A unified computation method of vector and elementary functions is proposed for handheld 3D graphics systems. It unifies vector operations like vector multiply, multiply-and-add, divide, divide-by-square-root, and dot product and elementary functions like trigonometric, inverse trigonometric, hyperbolic, inverse hyperbolic, power (xy with two variables), and logarithm to an arbitrary base into a single four-way arithmetic platform. A number system called the fixed-point hybrid number system (FXP-HNS), which combines the fixed-point number system (FXP) and the logarithmic number system (LNS), is proposed for the power and area-efficient unification. Power and area-efficient logarithmic and antilogarithmic conversion schemes are also proposed for the data conversions between fixed-point and logarithmic numbers in the FXP-HNS and achieve 0.41 percent and 0.08 percent maximum conversion errors, respectively. The unified arithmetic unit based on the proposed schemes is presented with less than 6.3 percent operation error. Its fully pipelined architecture achieves single-cycle throughput with maximum four-cycle latency for all of the supported operations. Comparison results show that the proposed arithmetic unit achieves 30 percent power and 10.9 percent area reductions and runs two times faster than the previous approach.
Clutching at straws: using tangible interaction to provide non-visual access to graphs

We present a tangible user interface (TUI) called Tangible Graph Builder, that has been designed to allow visually impaired users to access graph and chart-based data. We describe the current paper-based materials used to allow independent graph construction and browsing, before discussing how researchers have applied virtual haptic and non-speech audio techniques to provide more flexible access. We discuss why, although these technologies overcome many of the problems of non-visual graph access, they also introduce new issues and why the application of TUIs is important. An evaluation of Tangible Graph Builder with 12 participants (8 sight deprived, 4 blind) revealed key design requirements for non-visual TUIs, including phicon design and handling marker detection failure. We finish by presenting future work and improvements to our system.
Impact of paper mill wastewater on soil properties and crop yield through lysimeter studies

Paper and pulp industries produce large quantities of wastewater which can have adverse effects on the receiving water systems. In the present study lysimeters were used and filled with different soils replicating natural soil horizons and provided with a leachate collection system. The physico-chemical characteristics of the soil in each lysimeter and the quality of wastewater before leaching were assessed. Treated wastewater was evaluated for crop irrigation, and was categorized according to the irrigation water class ‘Increasing Problem to Severe Problem’ with respect to salinity and specific ion toxicity. Sandy loam soils showed 96% chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal while clay loam soils removed 99% of COD, and the colour removal in both the cases was found to be 100%. Application of wastewater resulted in an increase of pH value, ranging from 6.2–7.6; the electrical conductivity (ECe) of saturated extracts was found to be 0.6–1.7 dS m−1, and exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP) ranged from 7.8–11.1% in soils. Similarly, an increase in the organic carbon, available nitrogen, phosphorus and potash content of soils was observed when irrigated with wastewater. Wastewater irrigation showed increased grain and straw yield of jowar, wheat and moong. These results permit successful utilization of pulp and paper mill wastewater for crop production without damaging the soils.
DEVELOPMENTALLY REGULATED PLASMA MEMBRANE PROTEIN of Nicotiana benthamiana Contributes to Potyvirus Movement and Transports to Plasmodesmata via the Early Secretory Pathway and the Actomyosin System1[OPEN]

Virus movement in tobacco depends on interactions between tobacco and viral movement proteins and on their traffic to plasmodesmata. The intercellular movement of plant viruses requires both viral and host proteins. Previous studies have demonstrated that the frame-shift protein P3N-PIPO (for the protein encoded by the open reading frame [ORF] containing 5′-terminus of P3 and a +2 frame-shift ORF called Pretty Interesting Potyviridae ORF and embedded in the P3) and CYLINDRICAL INCLUSION (CI) proteins were required for potyvirus cell-to-cell movement. Here, we provide genetic evidence showing that a Tobacco vein banding mosaic virus (TVBMV; genus Potyvirus) mutant carrying a truncated PIPO domain of 58 amino acid residues could move between cells and induce systemic infection in Nicotiana benthamiana plants; mutants carrying a PIPO domain of seven, 20, or 43 amino acid residues failed to move between cells and cause systemic infection in this host plant. Interestingly, the movement-defective mutants produced progeny that eliminated the previously introduced stop codons and thus restored their systemic movement ability. We also present evidence showing that a developmentally regulated plasma membrane protein of N. benthamiana (referred to as NbDREPP) interacted with both P3N-PIPO and CI of the movement-competent TVBMV. The knockdown of NbDREPP gene expression in N. benthamiana impeded the cell-to-cell movement of TVBMV. NbDREPP was shown to colocalize with TVBMV P3N-PIPO and CI at plasmodesmata (PD) and traffic to PD via the early secretory pathway and the actomyosin motility system. We also show that myosin XI-2 is specially required for transporting NbDREPP to PD. In conclusion, NbDREPP is a key host protein within the early secretory pathway and the actomyosin motility system that interacts with two movement proteins and influences virus movement.