Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quality requirements for multimedia communication services and terminals-interaction of speech and video delays

This paper describes the quality requirements for multimedia communication services and terminals. Quality assessments for media, i.e., speech, video, and data, have been studied separately. The combination of media generates new factors affecting quality because of the interactions among the media. This paper considers the factors peculiar to multimedia communication and those subjects related to quality. Of those factors, the effects of delay on quality are examined. From the results, the quality requirements of terminals concerning delay are presented. <<ETX>>
Fast accurate diphone-based phoneme recognition

Statistical speech recognition systems typically utilise a set of statistical models of subword units based on the set of phonemes in a target language. However, in continuous speech it is important to consider co-articulation effects and the interactions between neighbouring sounds, as over-generalisation of the phonetic models can negatively affect system accuracy. Traditionally co-articulation in continuous speech is handled by incorporating contextual information into the subword model by means of context-dependent models, which exponentially increase the number of subword models. In contrast, transitional models aim to handle co-articulation by modelling the interphone dynamics found in the transitions between phonemes. This research aimed to perform an objective analysis of diphones as subword units for use in hidden Markov model-based continuous-speech recognition systems, with special emphasis on a direct comparison to a context-dependent biphone-based system in terms of complexity, accuracy and computational efficiency in similar parametric conditions. To simulate practical conditions, the experiments were designed to evaluate these systems in a low resource environment – limited supply of training data, computing power and system memory – while still attempting fast, accurate phoneme recognition. Adaptation techniques designed to exploit characteristics inherent in diphones, as well as techniques used for effective parameter estimation and state-level tying were used to reduce resource requirements while simultaneously increasing parameter reliability. These techniques include diphthong splitting, utilisation of a basic diphone grammar, diphone set completion, maximum a posteriori estimation and decision-tree based state clustering algorithms. The experiments were designed to evaluate the contribution of each adaptation technique individually and subsequently compare the optimised diphone-based recognition system to a biphone-based recognition system that received similar treatment. Results showed that diphone-based recognition systems perform better than both traditional phoneme-based systems and context-dependent biphone-based systems when evaluated in similar parametric conditions. Therefore, diphones are effective subword units, which carry suprasegmental knowledge of speech signals and provide an excellent compromise between detailed co-articulation modelling and acceptable system performance.
PENGARUH STRATEGI MATHEMATICAL HABITS OF MIND MHM BERBASIS MASALAH TERHADAP KREATIVITAS SISWA

Abstract: The Effects of the Problem-Based MHM Strategy on the Mathematical Creative Thinking Ability and Perception of Creativity. This paper presents findings from a quasi-experimental study with a static group comparison design by using the problem-based MHM instructional strategy conducted to investigate students’ mathematical creative thinking ability (MCTA) and perception of creativity (PoC). The study involved 126 students from two junior high schools of high and middle categories in Yogyakarta. The instruments were a test of Mathematical Prior Ability (MPA), a test of MCTA, and a scale of PoC. The data were analyzed using the two-way ANOVA and Chi-Square test. The study found that the problem-based MHM instructional strategy was able to improve students’ MCTA better than the conventional instruction, there was association between MCTA and PoC, there was an interaction between the school category and the instructional category on PoC, and there was no such interaction on MCTA. Keywords: problem-based MHM instructional strategy, mathematical creative thinking ability, perception of creativity
Simulation-Based Scheduling with Continuous Activity Relationships

This paper discusses an approach that was developed to enable effective use of systems simulation in the scheduling of construction projects. The approach was implemented in a software program named SimCon, which enhances current simulation methods through the use of continuous production links for activities that comprise a project. The continuous production links provide construction managers with a flexible representation of activity sequencing. The procedure builds on existing CYCLONE fundamentals through new constructs to connect processes in a simulation-based project plan. These constructs are used to simplify the cyclic interprocess relationships, standardize the techniques for logical linking of simulation processes, provide a better estimate of progress, and model a continuous and smooth flow of construction. Various scheduling alternatives are modeled without the need to change activity sequencing, as is required in current scheduling systems. Examples from an actual construction project show the advantages of the continuous production links. The concepts are implemented using a prototype computer system that integrates object-oriented concepts, event-driven programming, a relational database, and a simulation system.
Analysis of nonlinear microwave circuits using the compression approach

The authors describes the compression approach, a technique for comprehensive analysis of nonlinear microwave circuits which supplies a framework for combining linear field simulation methods and harmonic balance (HB). This technique makes it possible to include an accurate description of linear embedding space in HB simulations of nonlinear microwave circuits. A comparison with a pure time-domain approach is made for the analysis of a nonlinear transmission line. The comparison shows that the proposed method yields a significant saving in computer time if more than a few analyses have to be performed, while preserving the accuracy of the pure time-domain analysis. <<ETX>>
GAST: a flexible and extensible tool for evaluating multiprocessor assignment and scheduling techniques

Automatic tool support for scheduling applications on multiprocessor platforms is of paramount importance both to guarantee critical application demands and to keep development costs down. In this paper we present GAST, an object-oriented evaluation environment for multiprocessor assignment and scheduling techniques. GAST is based on a decomposition approach where existing assignment and scheduling techniques have been broken down into a set of common operations. By combining these operations into a complete scheduling process, GAST offers a powerful toolbox of existing assignment and scheduling techniques. GAST has been implemented on several popular operating systems and is accompanied by a graphic visualization tool that allows for flexible interaction with the application scheduling process.
DATA MINING FOR CREATING ACCENTUATION RULES

One of the important tasks in language analysis, speech synthesis, and recognition is stress assignment within words. The task is particularly difficult in languages where lexical stress can be located almost arbitrarily on every syllable in the word, such as in the Slovenian language. Although humans may pronounce very well even words they have never heard before, human experts have not been able to synthesize accurate rules for accentuation in phonetically complex languages. We have performed several experiments with different machine-learning and data-mining tools to create accentuation rules for the Slovenian language. We wanted to find out if it is possible to design better accentuation rules than the ones defined by the experts, and to test if these rules are complex or compact. The MULTEXT-East Slovene Lexicon was used for data sets, supplemented with lexical stress marks. The accuracy achieved by decision trees significantly surpassed all previous results. However, the sizes of the trees indicate that accentuation in Slovene is a very complex problem. We were not able to find a simple solution in the form of relatively compact rules using several ML and DM systems. It also indicates that creating accurate accentuation rules is a task that might require artificial intelligence (AI).
Successful Treatment of Myasthenia Gravis Following PD-1/CTLA-4 Combination Checkpoint Blockade in a Patient With Metastatic Melanoma

Currently, the blockade of certain immune checkpoints such as the cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) and programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) using checkpoint inhibitors is standard of care in patients with metastatic melanoma, especially with BRAF wild-type. However, several checkpoint inhibitor-related complications have been reported, including severe adverse events in the central and peripheral nervous system. In particular, in the recent past, the occurrence of myasthenia gravis following checkpoint inhibitor monotherapy, particularly nivolumab or ipilimumab, has been reported. In contrast, reports on PD-1/CTLA-4 combination blockade—usually with fatal clinical outcome—are scarce. We here report a case with combination immune checkpoint blockade-related myasthenia gravis with favorable clinical outcome.
Exploiting Request Characteristics to Improve Performance of Web Services Based Business Applications

Web Services and workflow have been widely adopted in building complicated business systems. In these systems, high security concern is claimed. But frequent authentication and computing-intensive encoding and decoding operation bring extra workload to the systems and greatly impact the performance of Web Services and workflow engine, especially under heavy load. In this paper, we propose Requests Automated Binding Mechanism, RABM, to automatically pack the requests from multiple clients but to a common target service in a short time period into one SOAP message, then sent by the workflow engine at runtime. Extra security operation costs are reduced without modifying of application programs. We use the Travel Service provided by W3C to evaluate RABM. As the experiment result shows, we can achieve up to 130% improvement of throughput and lower the average response time to 41%1.
Association Between Serum Uric Acid Levels and Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies

Objective: The objective of the present study was to meta-analyze relevant literature to gain a comprehensive understanding of the potential relationship between serum uric acid levels and risk of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). Methods: The databases of PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang, and SinoMed were systematically searched for observational case-control studies of the association between BPPV and serum uric acid levels published up to October 2018. Data from eligible studies were meta-analyzed using Stata 12.0. Results: A total of 12 studies were included in the analysis. There was a strong tendency for serum uric acid levels to be associated with risk of BPPV among studies conducted in China (OR 0.69, 95%CI 0.01–1.40, p = 0.053), but not among studies outside China (OR 1.07, 95%CI 1.08–3.22, p = 0.33). Across all studies, serum uric acid level was significantly higher among individuals with BPPV than among controls (OR 0.78, 95%CI 0.15–1.41, p = 0.015), yet it did not independently predict risk of the disorder (OR 1.003, 95%CI 0.995–1.012, p = 0.471). Conclusion: The available evidence suggests that BPPV is associated with elevated levels of serum uric acid, but these levels may not be an independent risk factor of BPPV.
Student Misconceptions in Signals and Systems and their Origins — Part II

We report on our investigation of student misconceptions and their origins within the Signals and Systems module taught in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This study is a sequel to an earlier paper in which we discussed our findings on student conceptions and reasoning regarding the behavior of linear, time-invariant electrical circuits. In this paper, we report our findings on student understanding of the fundamental topics involved in the study of continuous-time linear, time-invariant systems. During spring term 2003, we conducted clinical interviews for our data gathering. Fifty-one students enrolled in Signals and Systems volunteered to take part in this study. In our analysis, we identified the typical student difficulties and misconceptions, and the mathematical cognitive resources underlying these misconceptions. In this paper, we report on our results and how they could inform the development of instructional material and methods that support student learning
Simvastatin Inhibits Endotoxin-Induced Apoptosis in Liver and Spleen Through Up-Regulation of Survivin/NF-κB/p65 Expression

Endotoxemia is associated by dysregulated apoptosis of immune and non-immune cells. We investigated whether simvastatin has anti-apoptotic effects, and induces hepatocytes and lymphocytes survival signaling in endotoxin-induced liver and spleen injuries. Wistar rats were divided into the groups pretreated with simvastatin (20 or 40 mg/kg, orally) prior to a non-lethal dose of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), the LPS group, and the control. The severity of tissue inflammatory injuries was expressed as hepatic damage scores (HDS) and spleen damage scores (SDS), respectively. The apoptotic cell was detected by TUNEL (Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP Nick End Labeling) and immunohistochemical staining (expression of cleaved caspase-3, and anti-apoptotic Bcl-xL, survivin and NF-κB/p65). Simvastatin dose-dependently abolished HDS and SDS induced by LPS (p < 0.01), respectively. Simvastatin 40 mg/kg significantly decreased apoptotic index and caspase-3 cleavage in hepatocytes and lymphocytes (p < 0.01 vs. LPS group, respectively), while Bcl-XL markedly increased accordingly with simvastatin doses. In the simvastatin, groups were determined markedly increased cytoplasmic expression of survivin associated with nuclear positivity of NF-κB, in both hepatocytes and lymphocytes (p < 0.01 vs. LPS group). Cell-protective effects of simvastatin against LPS seemed to be mediated by up-regulation of survivin, which leads to reduced caspase-3 activation and inhibition of hepatocytes and lymphocytes apoptosis.
Analysis the Performance of Network Coding for Ad Hoc Networks in Realistic Simulation Scenarios

Network coding has recently emerged as an effective solution for multicast and broadcast communications in ad hoc networks. We focus on broadcast traffic and design a network coding-based scheme that we compare against simpler solutions, through extensive simulations in the ns-2 network simulator. Indeed, while often the benefits of network coding have been shown via theoretical analysis or in simplified simulation scenarios, our aim is to assess the performance of network coding in ad hoc networks when realistic MAC and physical layers are considered. The performance of network coding for traffic broadcasting strongly depends on the network node density and on the generation size. In particular, network coding fails to work in sparse networks, where connectivity is low, and leads to significant gains in terms of end-to-end packet loss probability in dense networks, where congestion is likely. It requires neither a global nor a partial view of the network, nor does it require information about neighboring nodes. Moreover, achieved results show that the protocol delivers broadcast data reliably with minimal network overhead, by eliminating redundant data transmissions, even under adverse network conditions.
Evolution in the Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders: From Psychosurgery to Psychopharmacology to Neuromodulation

The treatment of psychiatric patients presents significant challenges to the clinical community, and a multidisciplinary approach to diagnosis and management is essential to facilitate optimal care. In particular, the neurosurgical treatment of psychiatric disorders, or “psychosurgery,” has held fascination throughout human history as a potential method of influencing behavior and consciousness. Early evidence of such procedures can be traced to prehistory, and interest flourished in the nineteenth and early twentieth century with greater insight into cerebral functional and anatomic localization. However, any discussion of psychosurgery invariably invokes controversy, as the widespread and indiscriminate use of the transorbital lobotomy in the mid-twentieth century resulted in profound ethical ramifications that persist to this day. The concurrent development of effective psychopharmacological treatments virtually eliminated the need and desire for psychosurgical procedures, and accordingly the research and practice of psychosurgery was dormant, but not forgotten. There has been a recent resurgence of interest for non-ablative therapies, due in part to modern advances in functional and structural neuroimaging and neuromodulation technology. In particular, deep brain stimulation is a promising treatment paradigm with the potential to modulate abnormal pathways and networks implicated in psychiatric disease states. Although there is enthusiasm regarding these recent advancements, it is important to reflect on the scientific, social, and ethical considerations of this controversial field.
Direct—A Multiprocessor Organization for Supporting Relational Database Management Systems

The design of DIRECT, a multiprocessor organization for supporting relational database management systems is presented. DIRECT has a multiple-instruction multiple-data stream (MIMD) architecture. It can simultaneously support both intra-query and inter-query concurrency. The number of processors assigned to a query is dynamically determined by the priority of the query, the type and number of relational algebra operations it contains, and the size of the relations referenced. Since DIRECT iS a virtual memory machine, the maximum relation size is not limited to that of the associative memory as in some other database machines. Concurrent updates are controlled through the use of locks on relations which are maintained by a controlling processor.
Activation of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition and Altered β-Catenin Signaling in a Novel Indian Colorectal Carcinoma Cell Line

Colorectal cancer is the third major cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. The upward trend in incidence and mortality rates, poor sensitivity to conventional therapies and a dearth of early diagnostic parameters pose a huge challenge in the management of colorectal cancer in India. Due to the high level of genetic diversity present in the Indian population, unraveling the genetic contributions toward pathogenesis is key for understanding the etiology of colorectal cancer and in reversing this trend. We have established a novel cell line, MBC02, from an Indian colorectal cancer patient and have carried out extensive molecular characterization to unravel the pathological alterations in this cell line. In-depth molecular analysis of MBC02 revealed suppression of E-cadherin expression, concomitant with overexpression of EMT related molecules, which manifested in the form of highly migratory and invasive cells. Loss of membrane-tethered E-cadherin released β-catenin from the adherens junction resulting in its cytoplasmic and nuclear accumulation and consequently, upregulation of c-Myc. MBC02 also showed dramatic transcriptional upregulation of β-catenin. Remarkably, we observed significantly elevated proteasome activity that perhaps co-evolved to compensate for the unnaturally high mRNA level of β-catenin to regulate the increased protein load. In addition, there was substantial misregulation of other clinically relevant signaling pathways that have clinical relevance in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer. Our findings pave the way toward understanding the molecular differences that could define pathogenesis in cancers originating in the Indian population.
A MAC layer protocol for priority-based reliable multicast in wireless ad hoc networks

RTS-CTS handshake based protocols achieve "reliable unicast" by eliminating the hidden node problem effectively, however, these solutions are not directly or efficiently generalizable for solving the "reliable multicast" problem; multicast remains a best-effort operation in wireless ad hoc networks. Here we present a simple light-weight MAC protocol, namely busy elimination multiple access (BEMA) protocol, for solving the reliable multicast problem. BEMA grants on-demand access to the channel-rather than assigning fixed slots as in TDMA based approaches-and supports prioritization of traffic, thereby providing a useful building block for applications with reliability and quality-of-service requirements
Links Between Metabolic and Structural Changes in the Brain of Cognitively Normal Older Adults: A 4-Year Longitudinal Follow-Up

We aimed to longitudinally assess the relationship between changing brain energy metabolism (glucose and acetoacetate) and cognition during healthy aging. Participants aged 71 ± 5 year underwent cognitive evaluation and quantitative positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans at baseline (N = 25) and two (N = 25) and four (N = 16) years later. During the follow-up, the rate constant for brain extraction of glucose (Kglc) declined by 6%–12% mainly in the temporo-parietal lobes and cingulate gyri (p ≤ 0.05), whereas brain acetoacetate extraction (Kacac) and utilization remained unchanged in all brain regions (p ≥ 0.06). Over the 4 years, cognitive results remained within the normal age range but an age-related decline was observed in processing speed. Kglc in the caudate was directly related to performance on several cognitive tests (r = +0.41 to +0.43, all p ≤ 0.04). Peripheral insulin resistance assessed by the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) was significantly inversely related to Kglc in the thalamus (r = −0.44, p = 0.04) and in the caudate (r = −0.43, p = 0.05), and also inversely related to executive function, attention and processing speed (r = −0.45 to −0.53, all p ≤ 0.03). We confirm in a longitudinal setting that the age-related decline in Kglc is directly associated with declining performance on some tests of cognition but does not significantly affect Kacac.
An effective instruction optimization method for embedded real-time Java processor

A method to optimize instructions in embedded real-time Java processors is proposed. It can reduce the CPI (cycles per instruction) and simplify the implementation of complex instructions, as well as make the WCET (worst case execution time) of the optimized instructions more predictable. Because this method optimizes instruction itself it can be used together with other architectural optimization methods such as pipeline or out-of-order execution etc.