Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automated transcription of conversational Call Center speech - with respect to non-verbal acoustic events

This paper summarizes our recent efforts made to transcribe real-life Call Center conversations automatically with respect to non-verbal acoustic events, as well. Future Call Centers – as cognitive infocom systems – must respond automatically not only for well formed utterances but also for spontaneous and non-word speaker manifestations and must be robust against sudden noises. Conversational telephony speech transcription itself is a big challenge, primarily we address this issue on real-life (Bank and Insurance) tasks. In addition, we introduce several non-word acoustic modeling approaches and their integration to LVCSR (Large Vocabulary Continuous Speech Recognition). In the experiments, one and two channel (client and agent speech merged into one or left in two separate audio stream) transcription results, cross-task results and the handling of transcription data insufficiency are investigated – in parallel with the non-verbal acoustic event modeling. On the agent side less than 15% word error rate could be achieved and the best error rate reduction is 20% (relative) due to the inclusion of various written corpora and due to acoustic event handling.
The Maximum Entropy based Rule Selection Model for Statistical Machine Translation (Invited Paper)

This paper presents a novel rule selection model for statistical machine translation (SMT) that uses the maximum entropy approach to predict target-side for an ambiguous source-side. The maximum entropy based rule selection (MERS) model combines rich contextual information as features, thus can help SMT systems perform context-dependent rule selection. We incorporate the MERS model into two kinds of the state-of-the-art syntax-based SMT models: the hierarchical phrase-based model and the tree-to-string alignment template model. Experiments show that our approach achieves significant improvements over both the baseline systems.
Visualization and Interaction System of Virtual Organs for Surgical Planning

Modern technologies give a great support to the minimally invasive surgical procedures through medical image processing and visualization, 3D organ’s reconstruction and intra-operative surgical guidance. The practice of Minimally Invasive Surgery is becoming more and more widespread and is being adopted as an alternative to the classical procedure. This technique presents some limitations for surgeons. In particular, the lack of depth in perception and the difficulty in estimating the distance of the specific structures in laparoscopic surgery can impose limits to delicate dissection or suturing. The presence of new systems for the pre-operative planning can be very useful to the surgeon. In this paper we present a visualization and interaction system that allows surgeon to visualize the 3D model of the patient’s organs built from the CT images. Different visualization modalities are available according to the surgeon needs in laparoscopy and an Augmented Reality application permits the choice of the best insertion points of the trocars on the 3D virtual model and the visualization of these points on the real patient’s body. Two case studies have been considered. The system can be used as support for the diagnosis, for the surgical preoperative planning and also as visual support during the surgical procedure.
How Far Can We Go with Laparoscopic Liver Resection for Hepatocellular Carcinoma? Laparoscopic Sectionectomy of the Liver Combined with the Resection of the Major Hepatic Vein Main Trunk

Although the reports of laparoscopic major liver resection are increasing, hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) close to the liver hilum and/or major hepatic veins are still considered contraindications. There is virtually no report of laparoscopic liver resection (LLR) for HCC which involves the main trunk of major hepatic veins. We present our method for the procedure. We experienced 6 cases: 3 right anterior, 2 left medial, and 1 right posterior extended sectionectomies with major hepatic vein resection; tumor sizes are within 40–75 (median: 60) mm. The operating time, intraoperative blood loss, and postoperative hospital stay are within 341–603 (median: 434) min, 100–750 (300) ml, and 8–44 (18) days. There was no mortality and 1 patient developed postoperative pleural effusion. For these procedures, we propose that the steps listed below are useful, taking advantages of the laparoscopy-specific view. (1) The Glissonian pedicle of the section is encircled and clamped. (2) Liver transection on the ischemic line is performed in the caudal to cranial direction. (3) During transection, the clamped Glissonian pedicle and the peripheral part of hepatic vein are divided. (4) The root of hepatic vein is divided in the good view from caudal and dorsal direction.
Ionic Polymer Actuators: Principle, Fabrication and Applications

Ionic-polymer based actuators have the advantages of low voltage and power requirements, being easily processable, flexibility, soft action and bio-mimetic activation, which are of considerable interests for applications in biomedical micro-devices and soft robotics. In this chapter, we firstly review the development of ionic polymer actuator and reveal the universal architecture and mechanism of ionic polymer actuators. We then introduce two kinds of typical polymer actuators: ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMC) and bucky gel actuator (BGA), including their basic principle, fabrication process and typical applications. The aim of this chapter is to give some perspectives on IPMC and BGA and provide a way and case in using this actuator for real applications.
Saliency detection: A self-ordinal resemblance approach

In saliency detection, regions attracting visual attention need to be highlighted while effectively suppressing non-salient regions for the semantic scene understanding. However, most previous methods tend to fail in suppressing highly textured backgrounds and also high contrast edges belonging to the non-salient regions. To address this problem, we propose a method for detecting salient regions based on a self-ordinal resemblance measure (SORM). Our saliency map is defined by using the center-surround computations based on the ordinal signatures obtained from local regions centered at each pixel. It can be regarded as an energy map and thus extended to image retargeting. Our approach is fully automatic and nonparametric. To justify robustness of our approach, the proposed method is compared with the state of the art methods on various images.1
Wearable Smartphone: Wearable Hybrid Framework for Hand and Foot Gesture Interaction on Smartphone

There is a increasing interest in creating wearable smartphone interaction technologies. A novel smartphone wearable hybrid interaction framework based on mixed low-cost hardware and software is proposed in this work. The software application renders touch-less application graphics and status information using smart phone's screen. Augmented reality image rendering technology is employed for a convenient hand/foot and phone interaction. The users interact with the application using hand/foot gesture motion behind the camera, which trigger the interaction event and generate activity sequences for interactive buffers. The touch-less algorithm provides a core support for hand/foot-gesture interaction by accurately detecting and tracking the hand/foot gesture. Four proof-of-concept application prototypes are developed based on the wearable hybrid framework. The user study evaluation demonstrates the social acceptability of the designed hand/foot gestures and the usability of the applications on proposed wearable hybrid framework with touch-less interaction approach.
A 12CO J = 6-5 Map of M82: The Significance of Warm Molecular Gas

We present a 12CO J = 6-5 map of the nuclear regions of the starburst galaxy M82 at a resolution of 14'' taken at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO). Hot spots were found on either side of the dynamical center. We compare our results with a high-resolution 12CO J = 2-1 interferometer map, and present a 12CO J = 6-5/12CO J = 2-1 line ratio map obtained using a novel deconvolution technique. This line ratio is highest at the two J = 6-5 integrated intensity peaks, reaching 0.4 and 0.5 in the northeast and southwest peaks, respectively, and is typically 0.2 elsewhere in the nuclear region. We also present measurements of 12CO J = 4-3, 12CO J = 3-2, and 13CO J = 3-2, and an upper limit for 13CO J = 6-5. We analyze these observations in the context of a two-component large velocity gradient (LVG) excitation model. Likelihood density curves were calculated for each of the model parameters and a variety of related physical quantities for the northeast and southwest peaks based on the measured line intensities and their associated uncertainties. This approach reveals in an unbiased way how well various quantities can be constrained by the CO observations. We find that the beam-averaged 12CO and 13CO column densities, the isotopomer abundance ratio, and the area filling factors are among the best constrained quantities, while the cool component H2 density and pressure are less well constrained. The results of this analysis suggest that the warm gas is less dense than the cool gas, and that over half of the total molecular gas mass in these nuclear regions is warmer than 50 K.
A Midlatitude–ENSO Teleconnection Mechanism via Baroclinically Unstable Long Rossby Waves

The possibility of generating decadal ENSO variability via an ocean teleconnection to the midlatitude Pacific is studied. This is done by analyzing the sensitivity of the equatorial stratification to midlatitude processes using an ocean general circulation model, the adjoint method, and a quasigeostrophic normal-mode stability analysis. It is found that, on timescales of 2‐15 yr, the equatorial Pacific is most sensitive to midlatitude planetary Rossby waves traveling from the midlatitudes toward the western boundary and then to the equator. Those waves that propagate through baroclinically unstable parts of the subtropical gyre are amplified by the baroclinic instability and therefore dominate the midlatitude signal arriving at the equator. This result implies that decadal variability in the midlatitude Pacific would be efficiently transmitted to the equatorial Pacific from specific areas of the midlatitude Pacific that are baroclinically unstable, such as the near-equatorial edges of the subtropical gyres (158N and 128S). The Rossby waves that propagate via the baroclinically unstable areas are of the advective mode type, which follow the gyre circulation to some degree and arrive from as far as 258N and 308S in the east Pacific. It is shown that the baroclinic instability amplifying these waves involves critical layers due to the vertical shear of the subtropical gyre circulation, at depths of 150‐200 m.
Targeted Molecular Dynamics Study of C-Loop Closure and Channel Gating in Nicotinic Receptors

The initial coupling between ligand binding and channel gating in the human α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) has been investigated with targeted molecular dynamics (TMD) simulation. During the simulation, eight residues at the tip of the C-loop in two alternating subunits were forced to move toward a ligand-bound conformation as captured in the crystallographic structure of acetylcholine binding protein (AChBP) in complex with carbamoylcholine. Comparison of apo- and ligand-bound AChBP structures shows only minor rearrangements distal from the ligand-binding site. In contrast, comparison of apo and TMD simulation structures of the nAChR reveals significant changes toward the bottom of the ligand-binding domain. These structural rearrangements are subsequently translated to the pore domain, leading to a partly open channel within 4 ns of TMD simulation. Furthermore, we confirmed that two highly conserved residue pairs, one located near the ligand-binding pocket (Lys145 and Tyr188), and the other located toward the bottom of the ligand-binding domain (Arg206 and Glu45), are likely to play important roles in coupling agonist binding to channel gating. Overall, our simulations suggest that gating movements of the α7 receptor may involve relatively small structural changes within the ligand-binding domain, implying that the gating transition is energy-efficient and can be easily modulated by agonist binding/unbinding.
Speckle tracking evaluation of right ventricular functions in children with sickle cell disease

Background: Cardiac dysfunction is a risk factor for death in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). Aim of the Work: Aim of the work is to evaluate the right ventricular systolic and diastolic functions by tissue Doppler and speckling tracking imaging in children with SCD. Subjects and Methods: Thirty children with SCD and thirty controls were subjected to clinical, laboratory evaluations, and echocardiographic study using GE Vivid 7 (GE Medical System, Horten, Norway with a 3.5-MHz multifrequency transducer) including; Two-dimensional and tissue Doppler echocardiographic study (lateral tricuspid valve annulus peak E' velocity, lateral tricuspid valve annulus peak A' velocity, E'/A' ratio, isovolumetric relaxation time, lateral tricuspid valve annulus S' and septal S' waves and peak longitudinal systolic strain [PLSS] and time to PLSS) were done in six right ventricular segments. Results: There was a significant decrease in right ventricular systolic and diastolic function in patients group when compared to controls. Conclusions: Children with SCD have impaired right ventricular systolic and diastolic functions when compared to healthy children with early evaluation of the systolic dysfunction by speckle tracking imaging technique.
Reasoning about Strategies under Partial Observability and Fairness Constraints

A number of extensions exist for Alternating-time Temporal Logic; some of these mix strategies and partial observability but, to the best of our knowledge, no work provides a unified framework for strategies, partial observability and fairness constraints. In this paper we propose ATLK^F_po, a logic mixing strategies under partial observability and epistemic properties of agents in a system with fairness constraints on states, and we provide a model checking algorithm for it.
A Type-4 wind power plant equivalent model for the analysis of electromagnetic transients in power systems

Summary form only given. This paper introduces an accurate and computationally efficient reduced-order dynamic equivalent of a Type-4 based wind power plant (WPP) for the analysis of electromagnetic transients (EMTs) in the power system external to the WPP. The proposed model significantly reduces the computational resources and the simulation run time while preserving the WPP response-fidelity in the desired frequency range, e.g., 0 to 50 kHz. The proposed WPP equivalent model is composed of two parts; (i) a frequency-dependent equivalent model which represents the WPP passive component in the entire frequency range, and (ii) a dynamic equivalent model that represents the WPP supervisory control and the aggregated low-frequency dynamics of wind-turbine generator (WTG) units. The latter can be constructed from the (i) dynamic generic models, (ii) vendor-specific models, or (iii) user-defined models. The proposed model is incorporated as a software module in the PSCAD/EMTDC environment and its efficiency and accuracy are verified based on comparing the results with those of a detailed model.
The Emerging "Big Dimensionality"

The world continues to generate quintillion bytes of data daily, leading to the pressing needs for new efforts in dealing with the grand challenges brought by Big Data. Today, there is a growing consensus among the computational intelligence communities that data volume presents an immediate challenge pertaining to the scalability issue. However, when addressing volume in Big Data analytics, researchers in the data analytics community have largely taken a one-sided study of volume, which is the "Big Instance Size" factor of the data. The flip side of volume which is the dimensionality factor of Big Data, on the other hand, has received much lesser attention. This article thus represents an attempt to fill in this gap and places special focus on this relatively under-explored topic of "Big Dimensionality", wherein the explosion of features (variables) brings about new challenges to computational intelligence. We begin with an analysis on the origins of Big Dimensionality. The evolution of feature dimensionality in the last two decades is then studied using popular data repositories considered in the data analytics and computational intelligence research communities. Subsequently, the state-of-the-art feature selection schemes reported in the field of computational intelligence are reviewed to reveal the inadequacies of existing approaches in keeping pace with the emerging phenomenon of Big Dimensionality. Last but not least, the "curse and blessing of Big Dimensionality" are delineated and deliberated.
Empirical investigation of fault prediction capability of object oriented metrics of open source software

Open source software systems are playing important roles in many scientific and business software applications. To ensure acceptable levels of software quality Open source software (OSS) development process uses advanced and effective techniques. Quality improvement involves the detection of potential relationship between defect and open source software metrics. Many companies are investing in open source projects for making effective software. But, because open source software is often developed with a different management style and groups of people than the industrial ones, the quality and reliability of the code needs to be investigated. Hence, more projects need to be measured to obtain information about the characteristics and nature of the source code. This paper presents an empirical study of the fault prediction capabilities of object-oriented metrics given by Chidamber and Kemerer. We have carried out an empirical study and tried to find whether these metrics are significantly associated with faults or not. For this we have extracted source code processed it for metrics and associated it with the bugs. Finally the fault prediction capabilities of object oriented metrics have been evaluated by using Naïve Bayes and J48 machine learning algorithms.
Optimization of Autonomous Magnetic Field Sensor Consisting of Giant Magnetoimpedance Sensor and Surface Acoustic Wave Transducer

This paper presents a novel autonomous thin film magnetic field sensor consisting of a tri-layer giant magnetoimpedance sensor and a surface acoustic wave transponder. Double and single electrode interdigital transducer (IDT) designs are employed and compared. The integrated sensor is fabricated using standard microfabrication technology. The results show the double electrode IDT has an advantage in terms of the sensitivity. In order to optimize the matching component, a simulation based on P-matrix is carried out. A maximum change of 2.4 dB of the reflection amplitude and a sensitivity of 0.34 dB/Oe are obtained experimentally.
Aging resistance improvement of 3y-TZP: laser texturization and coating (12CE-TZP and 5y-PSZ)

Zirconia-based ceramics have been successfully used in the dentistry field. However, in the recent past, several HIP implants, containing zirconia pieces, were surgically replaced due to a phenomenon called aging. Because of this, many studies have been performed aiming at avoiding this phenomenon. Some alternatives found were grain size decrease and yttria replaced by cerium oxide in order to stabilize the zirconia tetragonal phase. Notwithstanding, this replacement has a disadvantage on mechanical strength. As an alternative to reduce aging, two approaches were used in this work: the manufacturing of a protective layer, by dip coating, and recrystallization, by laser treatment, of yttria stabilized zirconia. Moreover, adhesion issues and weak biological connection of zirconia-based ceramics have been extensively discussed and laser treatments are reported as an alternative to overcome these problems. In this thesis, in order to evaluate the effect of these surface modifications, a 3 mol% yttria stabilized zirconia commercial powder was used as bulk material. This powder was uniaxially pressed (200 MPa) into discs and the green bodies were dip coated using suspensions containing 12 mol% ceria stabilized zirconia or 5 mol% yttria stabilized zirconia. After sintering, samples showed a good coating-bulk homogeneity and aging protection for about 36 years in-vivo. Regarding mechanical properties, coating quality seems to play a more significant role than the material used, decreasing the resistance from ~1600 MPa to ~700 MPa. Laser treatments were performed in the same bulk material described, pressed and sintered. This approach was effective in aging kinetics reducing due to zirconia grains recrystallization, decreasing the monoclinic content from ~20% to ~10 after 18 h of accelerated aging. Samples mechanical strength was reduced regarding parameters used. The highest bending strength was measured as ~1400 MPa and the worst ~600 MPa.
The two‐component sensor kinase KdpD is required for Salmonella typhimurium colonization of Caenorhabditis elegans and survival in macrophages

The ability of enteric pathogens to perceive and adapt to distinct environments within the metazoan intestinal tract is critical for pathogenesis; however, the preponderance of interactions between microbe‐ and host‐derived factors remain to be fully understood. Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium is a medically important enteric bacterium that colonizes, proliferates and persists in the intestinal lumen of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Several Salmonella virulence factors important in murine and tissue culture models also contribute to worm mortality and intestinal persistence. For example, PhoP and the virulence plasmid pSLT are virulence factors required for resistance to the C. elegans antimicrobial peptide SPP‐1. To uncover additional determinants required for Salmonella typhimurium pathogenesis in vivo, we devised a genetic screen to identify bacterial mutants defective in establishing a persistent infection in the intestine of C. elegans. Here we report on identification of 14 loci required for persistence in the C. elegans intestine and characterization of KdpD, a sensor kinase of a two‐component system in S. typhimurium pathogenesis. We show that kdpD mutants are profoundly attenuated in intestinal persistence in the nematode and in macrophage survival. These findings may be attributed to the essential role KdpD plays in promoting resistance to osmotic, oxidative and antimicrobial stresses.
Revising Perceptual Linear Prediction (PLP)

Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefﬁcients (MFCC) and Perceptual Linear Prediction (PLP) are the most popular acoustic features used in speech recognition. Often it depends on the task, which of the two methods leads to a better performance. In this work we develop acoustic features that combine the advantages of MFCC and PLP. Based on the observation that the techniques have many similarities, we revise the processing steps of PLP. In particular, the ﬁlter-bank, the equal-loudness pre-emphasis and the input for the linear prediction are improved. It is shown for a broadcast news transcription task and a corpus of children’s speech that the new variant of PLP performs better than both MFCC and conventional PLP for a wide range of clean and noisy acoustic conditions.