Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
OPTIMIZED SYNTHESIS AND FPGA IMPLEMENTATION OF A FIR FILTER FOR MULTIPLE POSITION EQUALIZATION OF A RECORDING STUDIO/CONCERT HALL

This paper presents an improved approach to the synthesis and implementation of digital filters employed for multiple position equalization of a room transfer function. First, we propose a more effective way of deriving the desired frequency response of the equalizer than the Levinson-Durbin algorithm employed by well-known method used here as a reference to compare against. Second, the equalizer is implemented by a FIR filter synthesized by using an optimized procedure, based on a genetic algorithm that curtails the differences between the wanted and synthesized frequency responses while minimizing the filter length. These two features help us reduce significantly the hardware requirements for implementing the resulting equalizer. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated on a real-life example: the implementation of a FIR filter able to equalize the room transfer function of a recording studio used also as a concert hall. The optimized synthesis procedure yielded a FIR equalizer whose number of taps was reduced by an order of magnitude compared to the results reported by the reference method. The circuit implementation of the equalizer required only a small fraction of the resources provided by a mid-range FPGA development board. Objective and subjective measurements were carried out with and without the equalizer being inserted in the acoustic chain; they showed clearly that the proposed equalizer improved significantly the audition.
Combined Multi-Channel NMF-Based Robust Beamforming for Noisy Speech Recognition

We propose a novel acoustic beamforming method using blind source separation (BSS) techniques based on non-negative matrix factorization (NMF). In conventional mask-based approaches, hard or soft masks are estimated and beamforming is performed using speech and noise spatial covariance matrices calculated from masked noisy observations, but the phase information of the target speech is not adequately preserved. In the proposed method, we perform complex-domain source separation based on multi-channel NMF with rank-1 spatial model (rank-1 MNMF) to obtain a speech spatial covariance matrix for estimating a steering vector for the target speech utilizing the separated speech observation in each time-frequency bin. This accurate steering vector estimation is effectively combined with our novel noise mask prediction method using multi-channel robust NMF (MRNMF) to construct a Maximum Likelihood (ML) beamformer that achieved a better speech recognition performance than a state-of-the-art DNN-based beamformer with no environment-specific training. Superiority of the phase preserving source separation to real-valued masks in beamforming is also confirmed through ASR experiments.
The Measure of a Model

This paper describes measures for evaluating the three determinants of how well a probabilistic elassifter performs on a given test set. These determinants are the appropriateness, for the test set, of the results of (1)feature selection, (2) formulation of the parametric form of the model, and (3) parameter estimation. These are part of any model formulation procedure, even if not broken out as separate steps, so the tradeoffs explored in this paper are relevant to a wide variety of methods. The measures are demonstrated in a large experiment, in which they are used to analyze the results of roughly 300 classifiers that perform word-sense disambiguation.
Medium pH in submerged cultivation modulates differences in the intracellular protein profile of Fusarium oxysporum

ABSTRACT Fusarium oxysporum is a filamentous fungus that damages a wide range of plants and thus causes severe crop losses. In fungal pathogens, the genes and proteins involved in virulence are known to be controlled by environmental pH. Here, we report the influence of culture-medium pH (5, 6, 7, and 8) on the production of degradative enzymes involved in the pathogenesis of F. oxysporum URM 7401 and on the 2D-electrophoresis profile of intracellular proteins in this fungus. F. oxysporum URM 7401 was grown in acidic, neutral, and alkaline culture media in a submerged bioprocess. After 96 hr, the crude extract was processed to enzyme activity assays, while the intracellular proteins were obtained from mycelium and analyzed using 2D electrophoresis and mass spectrometry. We note that the diversity of secreted enzymes was changed quantitatively in different culture-medium pH. Also, the highest accumulated biomass and the intracellular protein profile of F. oxysporum URM 7401 indicate an increase in metabolism in neutral–alkaline conditions. The differential profiles of secreted enzymes and intracellular proteins under the evaluated conditions indicate that the global protein content in F. oxysporum URM 7401 is modulated by extracellular pH.
Mitigating Service Variability in MapReduce Clusters via Task Cloning: A Competitive Analysis

Measurement traces from real-world production environment show that the execution time of tasks within a MapReduce job varies widely due to the variability in machine service capacity. This variability issue makes efficient job scheduling over large-scale MapReduce clusters extremely challenging. To tackle this problem, we adopt the task cloning approach to mitigate the effect of machine variability and design corresponding scheduling algorithms so as to minimize the overall job flowtime in different scenarios. For offline scheduling where all jobs arrive at the same time, we design an <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$O(1)$</tex-math><alternatives> <inline-graphic xlink:href="xu-ieq1-2689767.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>-competitive algorithm, which gives priorities to jobs with small effective workload. We then extend this offline algorithm to yield the so-called Smallest Remaining Effective Workload based <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\beta$</tex-math><alternatives> <inline-graphic xlink:href="xu-ieq2-2689767.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>-fraction Sharing plus Cloning algorithm (SREW+C(<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\beta$</tex-math><alternatives> <inline-graphic xlink:href="xu-ieq3-2689767.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>)) for the online case. We also show that SREW+C(<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\beta$</tex-math><alternatives> <inline-graphic xlink:href="xu-ieq4-2689767.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>) is <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(1+ 2\beta + \epsilon)$</tex-math><alternatives> <inline-graphic xlink:href="xu-ieq5-2689767.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>-speed <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$O(\frac{1}{\beta \epsilon })$</tex-math><alternatives> <inline-graphic xlink:href="xu-ieq6-2689767.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>-competitive with respect to the sum of job flowtime within a cluster. We demonstrate via trace-driven simulations that SREW+C(<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\beta$</tex-math><alternatives><inline-graphic xlink:href="xu-ieq7-2689767.gif"/> </alternatives></inline-formula>) can significantly reduce the overall job flowtime by cutting down the elapsed time of small jobs substantially. In particular, SREW+C(<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\beta$</tex-math> <alternatives><inline-graphic xlink:href="xu-ieq8-2689767.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>) reduces the total job flowtime by 14, 10 and 11 percent respectively when comparing to Mantri, Dolly and Grass.
Alkaline volcanic rocks from the Columbia Hills, Gusev crater, Mars

[1] Irvine, Backstay, and Wishstone are the type specimens for three classes of fine-grained or fragmental, relatively unaltered rocks with distinctive thermal emission spectra, found as float on the flanks of the Columbia Hills. Chemical analyses indicate that these rocks are mildly alkaline basalt, trachybasalt, and tephrite, respectively. Their mineralogy consists of Na- and K-rich feldspar(s), low- and high-Ca pyroxenes, ferroan olivine, Fe-Ti (and possibly Cr) oxides, phosphate, and possibly glass. The texture of Wishstone is consistent with a pyroclastic origin, whereas Irvine and Backstay are lavas or possibly dike rocks. Chemical compositions of these rocks plot on or near liquid lines of descent for most elements calculated for Adirondack class rocks (olivine-rich basalts from the Gusev plains) at various pressures from 0.1 to 1.0 GPa. We infer that Wishstone-, Backstay-, and Irvine-class magmas may have formed by fractionation of primitive, oxidized basaltic magma similar to Adirondack-class rocks. The compositions of all these rocks reveal that the Gusev magmatic province is alkaline, distinct from the subalkaline volcanic rocks thought to dominate most of the planet's surface. The fact that differentiated volcanic rocks were not encountered on the plains prior to ascending Husband Hill may suggest a local magma source for volcanism beneath Gusev crater.
CROWN GALL RESISTANT WALNUT ROOTSTOCKS: ANALYSIS OF THE GRAFT UNION FOR TRANSMISSION OF GENETIC AND BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS.

Crown gall disease, caused by the bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens, is a source of significant economic losses in California walnut orchards and nurseries. Profits are reduced in the form of, lowered productivity from galled trees, their increased susceptibility to other pathogens and/or adverse environmental conditions and unsalable stock at the level of nurseries. A resistant rootstock was developed as a potential solution to this problem using RNAi technology. These transgenic rootstocks were generated by Agrobaterium-mediated plant transformation and express double stranded RNA corresponding to common and highly conserved Agrobacterium T-DNA encoded genes ipt, iaaM responsible for tumor formation (Escobar et al., 2001; 2002; 2003). Typically when wild type walnut plants are infected with Agrobacterium these genes are introduced into the infected cells leading to their expression that results in the uncontrolled cell proliferation and the crown gall phenotype. The genetically engineered rootstocks are able to block the expression of these genes resulting in the suppression of tumor formation (Escobar et al., 2001; 2002; 2003). Now that the success of this technology has been demonstrated with a transgenic Paradox hybrid genotype, the next step is to obtain detailed analysis of the elite transgenic materials to enable deregulation of these rootstocks that would permit further extensive field testing to establish efficacy under rigorous field conditions at multiple locations and eventual commercial release. A key issue this study is investigating is the stability and movement of the introduced genes and their products across the graft union in bark tissues. The regulations focus on the movement of genetic materials, i.e., seeds and pollen Studies on the long distance movement of genes have been completed and show no movement of genetic materials (genes) and supports the earlier work with tomato (Escobar et al., 2003). The movement of gene products, i.e., RNA, protein and metabolites and to the extent this occurs is the focus of this study. Stegemann & Bock et al.(2009) recently documented short distance movement of genetic materials from rootstock into a few cell layers of the scion within the graft union. In this study we are investigating the graft union site and the tissues immediately above and below as well as pellicle and kernels (nut parts) to detect both short and long distance movement of transgene products from transgenic tissues to wild type scion using the most advanced technologies with highest possible sensitivity and sequence-based accuracy.
Sensitivity of oral bacteria to 254 nm ultraviolet light.

AIM To explore the sensitivity of bacteria commonly found in root canals to 254 nm ultraviolet (UV) light, either as individual cells or as participants of a bacterial multilayer. METHODOLOGY The sensitivity of oral bacteria, as individual cells, to UV light was tested by subjecting plates streaked with bacteria to 254 nm UV, at a fluence of 1-20 mJ cm(-2). An experimental model was designed to produce a bacterial multilayer and to study absorption of UV light by bacteria in an outer layer and its effect on the elimination of bacteria in the inner layer. RESULTS Direct exposure to relatively low doses of UV light (2-7 mJ cm(-2)) effectively eliminated all bacterial strains tested. Furthermore, an Enterococcus faecalis strain, partially resistant to a 24 h exposure to calcium hydroxide, was effectively eliminated within several seconds of exposure to UV light (P < 0.001). UV was absorbed by a multilayer of bacteria. When 4 bacterial cells microm(-2) were present in the light path, the UV light dose had to be increased by a factor of x10 to achieve 100% elimination of the bacteria in an inner layer. CONCLUSIONS The application of UV light to eliminate endodontic pathogens may be possible. Nevertheless, its absorbance by outer layers of bacteria should be considered and the UV light dose adapted accordingly.
Predicting multiple binding modes using a kernel method based on a Vector Space Model Molecular Descriptor

We describe the use of our Vector Space Model Molecular Descriptor (VSMMD), based on a Vector Space Model (VSM) that is suitable for kernel studies in Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) modelling. Our experiments provide convincing comparative empirical evidence that this kernel method can provide sufficient discrimination to predict various biological activities of a molecule with reasonable accuracy. Furthermore, together with a kernel feature space algorithm, experiments also provide convincing empirical evidence that our VSMMD can provide sufficient information to identify different binding modes with high accuracy.
HIV Prevention and Care in the Digital Age

Objectives:To describe the technologic advances in the digital media, including computers, mobile phones, and the Internet, that have greatly expanded opportunities to deliver evidence-based HIV education, prevention, and treatment programs. Methods:This article examines the use of digital media in the United States and its potential role in HIV prevention and care. Results:Although the “digital divide” is shrinking, access varies by age, race/ethnicity, and education. The Internet is an important medium for delivering universal and targeted HIV education and prevention, especially for men who have sex with men, who report going online to seek health information online and for social and sexual networking. Online and off-line behavioral interventions using digital media range from computerized multimedia interventions that take into account individual behaviors to brief untailored video interventions. Numerous Web sites facilitate access to care by providing a variety of services, including location of and linkage to HIV testing and treatment sites. HIV treatment and adherence programs that use online medical records text messaging, paging, and tablet computer-based counseling tools are also being developed. Conclusions:HIV prevention and care programs using digital media have great potential to cost-effectively meet the complex needs of diverse and often underserved populations living with or at high risk of HIV.
Iterated Elliptic and Hypergeometric Integrals for Feynman Diagrams

We calculate 3-loop master integrals for heavy quark correlators and the 3-loop QCD corrections to the $\rho$-parameter. They obey non-factorizing differential equations of second order with more than three singularities, which cannot be factorized in Mellin-$N$ space either. The solution of the homogeneous equations is possible in terms of convergent close integer power series as $_2F_1$ Gau\ss{} hypergeometric functions at rational argument. In some cases, integrals of this type can be mapped to complete elliptic integrals at rational argument. This class of functions appears to be the next one arising in the calculation of more complicated Feynman integrals following the harmonic polylogarithms, generalized polylogarithms, cyclotomic harmonic polylogarithms, square-root valued iterated integrals, and combinations thereof, which appear in simpler cases. The inhomogeneous solution of the corresponding differential equations can be given in terms of iterative integrals, where the new innermost letter itself is not an iterative integral. A new class of iterative integrals is introduced containing letters in which (multiple) definite integrals appear as factors. For the elliptic case, we also derive the solution in terms of integrals over modular functions and also modular forms, using $q$-product and series representations implied by Jacobi's $\vartheta_i$ functions and Dedekind's $\eta$-function. The corresponding representations can be traced back to polynomials out of Lambert--Eisenstein series, having representations also as elliptic polylogarithms, a $q$-factorial $1/\eta^k(\tau)$, logarithms and polylogarithms of $q$ and their $q$-integrals. Due to the specific form of the physical variable $x(q)$ for different processes, different representations do usually appear. Numerical results are also presented.
Similarity Judgments: From Classical to Complex Vector Psychological Spaces

This chapter reviews progress with applications of quantum theory in understanding human similarity judgments. We first motivate and subsequently describe the quantum similarity model (QSM), which was proposed by Pothos, Busemeyer and Trueblood [2013], primarily as a way to cover the empirical findings reported in Tversky [1977]. We then show how the QSM encompasses Tversky’s [1977] results, specifically in relation to violations of symmetry, violations of the triangle inequality and the diagnosticity e↵ect. We next consider a list of challenges of the QSM and open issues for further research.
Value of speckle-tracking echocardiography and MRI-based feature tracking analysis in adult patients after Fontan-type palliation.

BACKGROUND Patients are commonly affected by ventricular dysfunction and heart failure after Fontan palliation. Reliable quantification of ventricular function is of interest but hampered by complex ventricular anatomy and physiology. OBJECTIVES We aimed to assess myocardial function using a novel cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR)-based feature-tracking (FT) technique and to study its clinical utility in Fontan patients. METHODS Retrospective study in consecutive patients attending our service. RESULTS We included 15 adult Fontan patients (age 27 ± 7 years) who underwent a standardized transthoracic echocardiographic investigation (TTE) with measurement of global strain using speckle tracking. Thirteen patients also underwent CMR, with assessment of myocardial deformation by FT, providing longitudinal and circumferential global strain for the single ventricle. The value of TTE-based strain measurements was limited by the fact that in 63% of patients at least one myocardial segment could not be adequately quantified due to limited acoustic windows. In contrast, CMR allowed for a complete visualization of all wall segments. Not surprisingly, there was poor agreement between the techniques but good or moderate interobserver variability for FT (coefficients of variability 6.6% and 14.3% for circumferential and longitudinal strain). Unlike ejection fraction, FT parameters correlated significantly with age at Fontan completion, New York Heart Association (NYHA) class, and peak oxygen uptake on cardiopulmonary exercise testing. CONCLUSIONS Assessment of myocardial function using CMR cine-based feature tracking is feasible in Fontan patients. Unlike echocardiographic techniques, FT is independent of inadequate acoustic windows and FT measurements relate to clinical parameters, suggesting that this approach could have clinical relevance in future.
Observation of anomalous diffusion and Lévy flights in a two-dimensional rotating flow.

Chaotic transport in a laminar fluid flow in a rotating annulus is studied experimentally by tracking large numbers of tracer particles for long times. Sticking and unsticking of particles to remnants of invariant surfaces (Cantori) around vortices results in superdiffusion: The variance of the displacement grows with time as t γ with γ=1.65±0.15. Sticking and flight time probability distribution functions exhibit power-law decays with exponents 1.6±0.3 and 2.3±0.2, respectively. The exponents are consistent with theoretical predictions relating Levy flights and anomalous diffusion
Targeting tumor vasculature with homing peptides from phage display.

Tumor vasculature expresses a number of molecular markers at much lower levels than those seen in the blood vessels of normal tissues, and in some cases, such markers are undetectable. The presence of these markers relates to angiogenesis; the same markers are shared by all blood vessels undergoing angiogenesis. The endothelial cells, pericytes and smooth muscle cells, and the vascular extracellular matrix in angiogenic vessels can each express such markers. Molecularly, they represent vascular growth factor receptors, cell adhesion proteins and their receptors. Screening of phage display libraries for peptides that home to tumor vasculature when injected into mice has recently provided a new tool for analyzing the distinguishing features of tumor vasculature. Tumor-homing peptides isolated in this manner, as well as an antibody against a form of fibronectin expressed in tumor blood vessels, have been found to serve as targeting devices to concentrate drugs and other therapeutic materials to tumors in in vivo models. Such a targeting strategy can therefore potentially improve the efficacy of drugs and reduce their side effects.
A MEMS tunable metamaterial filter

This paper presents a terahertz tunable metamaterial filter using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) structures. The metamaterial unit cells are tuned by micromachined comb-drive. The metamaterial slab works as a notch filter of THz region, which can lower the transmission of interest frequency down to −70 dB. In the experiment, it measures the tuning range of filter frequency from 3.32 to 3.80 THz. The tunable metamaterial filter has better tunability compared with traditional active metamaterial because the optical property of metamaterial is more sensitive to the change of the unit cell structure.
MRM-DIFF: data processing strategy for differential analysis in large scale MRM-based lipidomics studies

Based on theoretically calculated comprehensive lipid libraries, in lipidomics as many as 1000 multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) transitions can be monitored for each single run. On the other hand, lipid analysis from each MRM chromatogram requires tremendous manual efforts to identify and quantify lipid species. Isotopic peaks differing by up to a few atomic masses further complicate analysis. To accelerate the identification and quantification process we developed novel software, MRM-DIFF, for the differential analysis of large-scale MRM assays. It supports a correlation optimized warping (COW) algorithm to align MRM chromatograms and utilizes quality control (QC) sample datasets to automatically adjust the alignment parameters. Moreover, user-defined reference libraries that include the molecular formula, retention time, and MRM transition can be used to identify target lipids and to correct peak abundances by considering isotopic peaks. Here, we demonstrate the software pipeline and introduce key points for MRM-based lipidomics research to reduce the mis-identification and overestimation of lipid profiles. The MRM-DIFF program, example data set and the tutorials are downloadable at the “Standalone software” section of the PRIMe (Platform for RIKEN Metabolomics, http://prime.psc.riken.jp/) database website.