Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
WITHIN AND BETWEEN SPEAKER VARIATION IN VOICES

Little is known about the nature or extent of everyday variability in voice quality within a speaker or how this differs across speakers. Using principal component analysis, we identified measures that account for perceptually relevant acoustic variance within speakers. Based on face-identity studies and cognitive models of speaker recognition, we hypothesized that a few components would be shared across speakers, but that much of what characterizes individual talkers would be idiosyncratic. Fifty female and fifty male speakers of English provided multiple sentence productions recorded over three days. Acoustic parameters were measured for vowels and approximants. For both females and males, the most variance (20%/22%) was accounted for by variability in source spectral shape and by the balance of harmonic versus inharmonic energy in the voice. Formant frequencies accounted for an additional 12%/12% of variance. Remaining variance appeared largely idiosyncratic. Notably, F0 did not emerge. Implications for voice recognition are discussed.
Altered Serum MicroRNA Profile May Serve as an Auxiliary Tool for Discriminating Aggressive Thyroid Carcinoma from Nonaggressive Thyroid Cancer and Benign Thyroid Nodules

Thyroid cancers are the most common malignancy of the endocrine system; however, there is no reliable blood biomarkers for thyroid cancer diagnosis and even for aggressive and nonaggressive thyroid cancers as well as benign nodule discrimination. The present study is aimed at evaluating whether circulating microRNA (miRNA) can differentiate aggressive and nonaggressive thyroid cancer from benign thyroid nodules. In this study, we performed a multiphase, case-control study to screen serum miRNA expression profile in 100 patients with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), 15 patients with aggressive medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC), 91 patients with benign nodules, and 89 healthy controls using TaqMan low-density array followed by extensive reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR validation. The results showed that the serum levels of miR-222-3p, miR-17-5p, and miR-451a were markedly increased, while miR-146a-5p, miR-132-3p, and miR-183-3p were significantly decreased in the PTC and benign nodule groups compared with the control group. There was no difference in the miRNA expression profile between the PTC group and the benign nodule group. Nevertheless, the serum levels of miR-222-3p and miR-17-5p were significantly increased in the MTC group than the benign nodule and control group. Moreover, receiver operating characteristic curve analyses demonstrated that the 2 miRNAs and their panel can accurately discriminate MTC from the benign nodule group and healthy controls. These findings indicated that the altered circulating miRNAs may discriminate PTC and benign thyroid nodules from controls, and serum miR-222-3p and miR-17-5p have the potential to serve as auxiliary tools for diagnosing more aggressive thyroid carcinomas, such as MTC.
CONVENTIONAL BREEDING ENHANCES GENETIC DIVERSITY IN PISUM SATIVUM ( L . ) DETECTED THROUGH SDS-PAGE

In the present study, twenty homozygous segregante of edible pea were developed through conventional breeding (20042015). The seed storage proteins were extracted from the seeds of each line and run through Slab-vertical gel Electrophoresis. After staining and de-staining the Electrophoregram was divided into two zones (R-I and R-II). The R-1 was consists of five bands (B-1, 2, 3, 4 & 5) ranging from 180KDa to 34KDa, which calculated < 1% genetic diversity (GD). Out of which B-1, 2 and 3 were polymorphic, while B-4 and B-5 were monomorphic. Due to strong genetic association and low level of GD, the R-I divided the total germplasm into two clusters. Similarly, R-II was comprised of nine bands ranging from 33KDa -10KDa. All the loci were polymorphic and showed >39% genetic diversity. The R-II divided the total lines into four clusters. In cluster plating, 43.74% lines were grouped in C-03, 30.43% in C-01, 13.39% in C-04 and 8.69% in C-02. Variation in bands profile and multiple clustering authenticates that conventional plant breeding enhances the level of genetic variation in seed storage protein profile in pea germplasm detected through SDS-PAGE.
CD103+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes predict favorable prognosis in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

As an indispensable factor in preventing the recirculation of tissue lymphocytes to the lymphatic and blood systems, the integrin CD103 has enabled the characterization of lymphocyte populations in non-lymphoid tissues and organs. However, the expression, distribution, and clinical significance of CD103+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remain unclear. In the present study, we included tumor and adjacent non-tumor tissue specimens from 198 patients with ESCC who had undergone surgical resection. Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence were used to detect CD103+ TIL distribution, as well as the co-expression of CD103 and T cell markers and functional molecules. Kaplan-Meier analysis and the Cox proportional hazards model were used to estimate the prognostic value of CD103+ TILs. The results showed that CD103+ TILs were predominantly located in adjacent non-tumor tissues compared with tumor tissues (P < 0.0001). Immunofluorescence double staining revealed that CD8+ T cells, but not CD4+ T cells, comprised the majority of CD103-expressing cells. Most of these CD103-expressing cells co-expressed CTLA-4 and granzyme B rather than the exhaustion marker PD-1. High density of intratumoral CD103+ TIL is associated with longer overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in both the internal (OS, P = 0.0004 and DFS, P = 0.0002) and external (OS, P = 0.038 and DFS, P = 0.12) cohorts. Multivariate Cox analysis showed the density of CD103+ TILs was an independent positive prognostic factor for OS (hazards ratio [HR] = 0.406; P = 0.0003 in the internal cohort; HR = 0.328, P = 0.01, in the external cohort) and DFS (HR = 0.385; P = 0.0002 in the internal cohort; HR = 0.270, P = 0.003, in the external cohort). Our findings indicate that CD103+ TILs might play an important role in the tumor microenvironment, and intratumoral CD103+ TILs could serve as a promising prognostic marker in ESCC.
A Blind Nonlinearity Compensator Using DBSCAN Clustering for Coherent Optical Transmission Systems

Coherent fiber-optic communication systems are limited by the Kerr-induced nonlinearity. Benchmark optical and digital nonlinearity compensation techniques are typically complex and tackle deterministic-induced nonlinearities. However, these techniques ignore the impact of stochastic nonlinear distortions in the network, such as the interaction of fiber nonlinearity with amplified spontaneous emission from optical amplification. Unsupervised machine learning clustering (e.g., K-means) has recently been proposed as a practical approach to the blind compensation of stochastic and deterministic nonlinear distortions. In this work, the Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN) algorithm is employed, for the first time, for blind nonlinearity compensation. DBSCAN is tested experimentally in a 40 Gb/s 16 quadrature amplitude-modulated system at 50 km of standard single-mode fiber transmission. It is shown that at high launched optical powers, DBSCAN can offer up to 0.83 and 8.84 dB enhancement in Q-factor when compared to conventional K-means clustering and linear equalisation, respectively.
Globalization of the Life Insurance Industry : Blessing or Curse ?

A central matter of dispute in international business is the existence of a systematic relationship between internationalization and performance (I-P relationship) and if there is, how the relationship looks like. This paper provides a first analysis of globalization strategies’ impact on life insurers’ performance. In contrast to common beliefs, we find the impact is negative on life insurers’ profitability. Moreover, we introduce frontier efficiency measurement into the I-P relationship studies and find that cost efficiency mediates the relationship between globalization and profitability. The expected benefits of globalization are thus difficult to translate into profits and the costs of foreignness can easily endanger cost efficiency. Our results also highlight the importance of industry dependency in internationalization research.
CHANGES IN THYROID FUNCTION IN PATIENTS WITH ACUTE EXACERBATION OF CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE AND ITS CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE

Objective: To investigate the changes of thyroid function in patients with the acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and its clinical significance. Methods: In total, 239 patients with acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD) admitted to the Department of Respiratory Medicine, Jishuitan Hospital of Beijing from 2014 to 2017 were selected as the observation group, including 51 dead patients and 188 discharged patients who had improved. Fifty-six healthy people who received physical examination in the same period were selected as the control group. The levels of serum total triiodothyronine (TT3), total thyroxine (TT4), free triiodothyronine (FT3), free thyroxine (FT4) and serum thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) of 8AM, 4PM and 12MN were compared between the two groups after admission, and the oxygen and index and APACHE II score of the observation group were calculated. Results: The levels of TT3, TT4 and FT3 in the improved group and the dead group were lower than those in the control group (P=0.000), but there was no significant difference between the improved group and the dead group (P>0.05); there was, however, a significant difference between the dead group and the improved group (P=0.000). The level of serum TSH in the observation group was lower than that in the control group (P<0.05), and the difference was significant at different time points (P<0.001). There was an interaction between groups and time at the level of serum TSH (P<0.001). The level of serum TSH in the observation group was lower than that in the control group (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in serum TSH level between the two groups (P>0.05), but there was significant difference at different time points (P<0.001); however, there was no interaction between groups and time at serum TSH level (P>0.05). There was no significant difference in TSH levels between the non-respiratory failure, type I respiratory failure and type II respiratory failure groups (P>0.05); there was a significant difference at different time points (P<0.001), but no interaction between groups and time at the level of serum TSH (P>0.05). In the observation group, compared with the improvement group, the oxygenation index decreased significantly and APACHE II score increased significantly in the death group (P=0.000). TT3, oxygenation index and APACHE II score were independent predictors of death in AECOPD patients. Conclusion: The hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid axis may be impaired in patients with AECOPD. In severe AECOPD patients, hypoxia and thyroid hormone levels decreased more significantly.
ANTICIPATORY TONAL COARTICULATION: HOW, WHEN AND WHY IT OCCURS

This study examines anticipatory tonal coarticulation exhibited on a string of neutral tones in Mandarin. In addition to the well-documented dissimilatory anticipation triggered by the Low tone, the results show that the Falling tone (with high onset) consistently exerts assimilatory anticipatory effect which could extend over three preceding neutraltone syllables; the High tone, on the other hand, doesn’t exert such effect. 2D density plots of the surrounding full tones revealed that dissimilatory anticipation was strongest when the neutral tones were both preceded and followed by a low pitch target, whereas assimilatory anticipation tended to occur when the following tone had an early high pitch target. This finding was interpreted as the result of speech planning and articulatory constraint.
aNalySiS of amBiENt NoiSE iNStaNtaNEouS PolariSatioN for SitE rESPoNSE CHaraCtEriSatioN

J. Seismol. Soc. Jpn. , 24, 26-40. Poggi V. , Fäh D. , Burjánek J. and Giardini D. ; 2012: The use of Rayleigh-wave ellipticity for site-specific hazard assessment and microzonation: application to the city of Lucerne, Switzerland. Geophys. J. Int., 188, 1154-1172. Schimmel M. and Gallart J.; 2003: The use of instantaneous polarization attributes for seismic signal detection and image enhancement. Geophys. J. Int., 155, 653-668. Schimmel M. and Gallart J.; 2004: Degree of Polarization Filter for Frequency-Dependent Signal Enhancement Through Noise Suppression. B. Seismol. Soc. Am. , 94, 1016-1035. 234 GNGTS 2013 SeSSione 2.2 131218 OGS.Atti. 32_vol. 2.sez. 2.20. indd 234 07/11/13 08.37
Low Reynolds Number Bed Shear Stress Measurements Behind a Backward-facing Step Using PIV

A series of experiments was carried out to investigate the bed shear stress distribution downstream of a backward-facing step. A viscous-fluid flume and a custom-made PIV system were used for the experiments of low Reynolds number flows to enable improved sampling resolutions for the near-bed flow. Reattachment lengths were found to match the indications of previous studies. If the hypothesis that the same process acts to generate sediment waves in laminar and turbulent flows is correct, then the present tests indicate that the bed shear stress distribution downstream of a bed perturbation does not lead to sediment-wave formation. Alternative aspects of boundary-layer redevelopment downstream of a bed perturbation are conjectured to lead to sediment-wave formation in nature.
WordNet Gloss Translation for Under-resourced Languages using Multilingual Neural Machine Translation

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) FPI grant number BES-2017-081045, and projects BigKnowledge (BBVA foundation grant 2018), DOMINO (PGC2018-102041-B-I00, MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE) and PROSA-MED (TIN2016-77820-C3- 1-R, MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE). We thank Uxoa Inurrieta for helping us with the glosses.
Title In-use gaseous and particulate matter emissions from a modern ocean going container vessel Permalink

Ocean going vessels are one of the largest uncontrolled sources of pollutants and the emissions data from these sources are scarce. This paper provides the emission measurements of gases, particulate matter (PM), metals, ions, elemental and organic carbon, conducted from the main engine of an ocean going PanaMax class container vessel, at certification cycle and at vessel speed reduction mode, during actual operation at sea. The weighted emission factor (g kW 1 h ) of PM and NOx were 1.64 and 18.2, respectively, for the main engine operating on a 2.05wt% sulfur heavy fuel oil (HFO). The NOx emissions at the vessel speed reduction mode (8% of full load) are 30% higher than at 52% engine power, the normal cruise speed. The composition of PM, from main engine is dominated by sulfate and water bound with sulfate (about 80% of total PM) and organic carbon constitutes about 15% of the PM. Sulfur, vanadium and nickel are the significant elements in the exhaust from the engine running on the HFO. At the point of sampling 3.7–5.0% of the fuel sulfur was converted to sulfate. r 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Effects of Huolong moxibustion on discogenic low back pain

Objective: The goal of this study was to investigate the effect of Huolong moxibustion in the treatment of discogenic low back pain (DLBP) and its underlying mechanisms. Methods: One hundred and forty-eight patients with DLBP treated in the Orthopedics Department of Tangshan Gongren Hospital were selected and randomly divided into the observation group and control group. Patients in the control group were treated with regular treatment such as conventional traction and manual massage physiotherapy, while those in the observation group were treated with Huolong moxibustion based on the treatment in control group for 3 weeks. The two groups were compared in the treatment effect of DLBP, and visual analogue scale (VAS) score, Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) score, oswestry disability index (ODI) score, 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) score and serum inflammatory factors. Results: At 3 weeks after treatment, the total effective rate was 97.37% in observation group and 88.39% in control group, and there was a statistical difference between two groups (P=0.04). At 3 weeks after treatment, VAS score and ODI score in the observation group were remarkably lower than those in the control group (both P<0.001); JOA score and SF-36 score were also significantly increased (both P<0.001). Additionally, interleukin-2 (IL-2), IL-10, and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) in the observation group was significantly lower than those in the control group (P<0.001). Conclusion: Huolong moxibustion shows efficacy in the treatment of DLBP, which is helpful to alleviate the symptoms of lumbago and improve the quality of life of patients. This might be associated with lower serum IL-6 and TNF-α expression levels.
Rearrangement of the Experimental Data of Low Lying Collective Excited States

The classification of low-lying excited states in even even deformed nuclei has been done. The available experimental data are represented as the energies parabolic distributed by number of collective excitations. With other words each excited state now is determined as the collective state with the corresponding number of bosons. In this paper we use the Interacting Vector Bosons Model to vindicate that the experimental data for low-lying excited states possessing not equal to zero spins can also be described with parabolic distribution function depending on the number of collective excitations building the corresponding state. We represent the available experimental data in the form of the energies of the 0 excited states as distributed by positive integer parameter and determine this classification parameter in the way giving us information about collective structure peculiarities of these states. In recent new representation of the experimental data of the low lying excited 0–states. has been applied using the distribution function. En = An−Bn + C (1) This form of the distribution function appears as the energy spectrum produced by model monopole Hamiltonian [1] H = αR +R j − + βR j 0R j 0 + βΩ 2 R 0 , (2) which, written in terms of pure bosons b, b† with [ b, b† ] = 1, [b, b] = [ b†, b† ] =0 has the form: H = Ab†b−Bb†bb†b . (3)
Impact of saline stress on growth and biochemical indices of Calendula officinalis seedlings

Soil salinity is a major environmental constraint to plant growth and productivity. It was investigated the effects of different sodium chloride concentrations on Calendula officinalis seedling growth, pigments, proline and protein contents as well as antioxidant responses. Physiological and biochemical parameters were assessed in the seedling after 9 and 36 days of salt treatment with 50 and 100 mM NaCl. Salinity affected most of the considered parameters. Results showed that the growth and pigment (chl a, chl b, and Car) contents was not negatively affected by the concentration salt. After 9 days of salinity at marigold seedling it was observed a significant increase of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POD) activities at 50 mM NaCl as compared to control plant but these were generally decreased at 100 mM NaCl. Moreover, after a prolonged stress (36 days) a decrease of these enyzmes activity was observed with increase of salinity. The saline stress increased proline content of marigold seedling with the increase of NaCl concentration at 36-days old.
Using and Providing Services: Case Studies in Early Intervention.

AUTHOR McWilliam, Robin; Tocci, Lynn; Sideris, John; Harbin, Gloria TITLE Using and Providing Services: Case Studies in Early Intervention. INSTITUTION North Carolina Univ., Chapel Hill. Frank Porter Graham Center. SPONS AGENCY Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (ED), Washington, DC. PUB DATE 1998-03-00 NOTE 40p. CONTRACT H024T20002 PUB TYPE Reports Descriptive (141) EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Black Mothers; Case Studies; Community Services; *Delivery Systems; *Disabilities; *Early Intervention; *Family Programs; Infants; Integrated Services; Mother Attitudes; Preschool Education; Questionnaires; Self Evaluation (Individuals); Surveys; Toddlers IDENTIFIERS African Americans; *Case Management; Service Providers; *Service Utilization
Ki-67/MKI67 as a Predictive Biomarker for Clinical Outcome in Gastric Cancer Patients: an Updated Meta-analysis and Systematic Review involving 53 Studies and 7078 Patients

Gastric cancer (GC) threatens human health worldwide and we performed this meta-analysis to evaluate the clinical value of Ki-67/MKI67 in patients with GC. The combined hazard ratio (HR), odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were calculated to assess the relationships of Ki-67/MKI67 expression with prognoses and clinicopathological characteristics. Genes co-expressed with MKI67 were collected for Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analyses. In total, 53 studies with 7078 patients were included in this study. The pooled HRs indicated that an elevated expression of Ki-67/MKI67 predicted an unfavorable overall survival (HR: 1.54, 95% CI: 1.33-1.78, P<0.0001) and disease-free survival (HR: 2.28, 95% CI: 1.43-3.64, P<0.0001) in GC patients. Additionally, in patients with advanced GC, a high Ki-67/MKI67 expression was also significantly connected with OS (HR: 1.37, 95% CI: 1.18-1.60, P<0.0001). The combined ORs showed that Ki-67/MKI67 expression was related to TNM stage (stage III/IV versus stage I/II: OR=1.93, 95% CI=1.34-2.78, P<0.0001), tumor differentiation (poor versus well/moderate: OR=1.94, 95% CI=1.32-2.85, P=0.001), lymph node metastasis (yes versus no: OR=1.67, 95% CI=1.23-2.25, P=0.001), distant metastasis (yes versus no: OR=1.67, 95% CI=1.24-2.26, P=0.001) and tumor invasion depth (T3/T4 versus Tis/T1/T2: OR=1.98, 95% CI=1.60-2.44, P<0.0001). The results of GO, KEGG pathway and PPI network analyses indicated that Ki-67/MKI67 may be involved in the development of GC via influencing P53 signaling pathway. Ki-67/MKI67 could be a potential indicator to predict the prognosis of patients with GC and identify high-risk cases. Detecting Ki-67/MKI67 expression in clinic may be helpful in optimizing individual treatment and further improving the survival expectancy of patients with GC.