Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Thousands of Voices for HMM-Based Speech Synthesis–Analysis and Application of TTS Systems Built on Various ASR Corpora

In conventional speech synthesis, large amounts of phonetically balanced speech data recorded in highly controlled recording studio environments are typically required to build a voice. Although using such data is a straightforward solution for high quality synthesis, the number of voices available will always be limited, because recording costs are high. On the other hand, our recent experiments with HMM-based speech synthesis systems have demonstrated that speaker-adaptive HMM-based speech synthesis (which uses an “average voice model” plus model adaptation) is robust to non-ideal speech data that are recorded under various conditions and with varying microphones, that are not perfectly clean, and/or that lack phonetic balance. This enables us to consider building high-quality voices on “non-TTS” corpora such as ASR corpora. Since ASR corpora generally include a large number of speakers, this leads to the possibility of producing an enormous number of voices automatically. In this paper, we demonstrate the thousands of voices for HMM-based speech synthesis that we have made from several popular ASR corpora such as the Wall Street Journal (WSJ0, WSJ1, and WSJCAM0), Resource Management, Globalphone, and SPEECON databases. We also present the results of associated analysis based on perceptual evaluation, and discuss remaining issues.
Significance for the diagnosis of iron overload of histochemical and chemical iron in the liver of control subjects

Storage iron was examined in surgical liver biopsy specimens in 43 haematologically normal and otherwise healthy adult individuals. These patients had no history of unphysiological iron losses nor of unphysiological iron intake. Histochemical iron was estimated in parenchymal and Kupffer cells and graded from 0 to 4+. Stainable iron of grade 1+ or more was present in parenchymal cells in 23 of the 27 men. Six of them had a 3+ grade. In nine cases iron was also visible in Kupffer cells. Visible iron was absent in most of the menstruating women. The mean total nonhaemin iron concentration for the male group was 80·2 (19·4 to 227·0), for the postmenopausal women 50·7 (19·3 to 106·6), and for the menstruating women 23·5 (5·5 to 65·9) mg. /100 g. dry weight. The mean value for the women was significantly lower than the mean value for the men. There was a significant correlation between the histochemical grades of iron and chemically determined nonhaemin iron, but the degree of overlapping was considerable. The presence of stainable iron in the parenchymal liver cells is a normal finding. The significance of the present results with reference to familial studies of haemochromatosis is discussed.
The Foundations of Social Theory

This course will deal with the foundations of social theory, starting with the French and Scottish Enlightenments and the beginnings of a specifically sociological worldview. We will then move on to Durkheim’s organic view of society, to Marx’s dialectical materialism, finishing with Weber’s Verstehen sociology and ideal types of authority. We’ll try to understand their theories not just as historical relics, but as living sets of ideas relevant to contemporary social issues. Class attendance and participation will be strongly encouraged, as will a critical engagement with the ideas presented in the class.
Preclinical Development Sensitivity ofSelectedHumanTumorModels toPF-04217903 , a Novel Selective c-Met Kinase Inhibitor

The c-Met pathway has been implicated in a variety of human cancers for its critical role in tumor growth, invasion, andmetastasis. PF-04217903 is a novelATP-competitive small-molecule inhibitor of c-Met kinase. PF04217903 showed more than 1,000-fold selectivity for c-Met compared with more than 150 kinases, making it one of the most selective c-Met inhibitors described to date. PF-04217903 inhibited tumor cell proliferation, survival, migration/invasion in MET-amplified cell lines in vitro, and showed marked antitumor activity in tumor models harboring eitherMET gene amplification or a hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)/c-Met autocrine loop atwell-tolerateddose levels in vivo. Antitumor efficacy of PF-04217903was dose-dependent and showed a strong correlation with inhibition of c-Met phosphorylation, downstream signaling, and tumor cell proliferation/survival. In human xenograft models that express relatively high levels of c-Met, complete inhibition of c-Met activity by PF-04217903 only led to partial tumor growth inhibition (38%–46%) in vivo. The combination of PF-04217903 with Recepteur d’origine nantais (RON) short hairpin RNA (shRNA) knockdown in the HT29 model that also expresses activated RON kinase–induced tumor cell apoptosis and resulted in enhanced antitumor efficacy (77%) compared with either PF-04217903 (38%) or RON shRNA alone (56%). PF-04217903 also showed potent antiangiogenic properties in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, PF-04217903 strongly induced phospho-PDGFRb (platelet-derived growth factor receptor) levels in U87MG xenograft tumors, indicating a possible oncogene switching mechanism in tumor cell signaling as a potential resistance mechanism that might compromise tumor responses to c-Met inhibitors. Collectively, these results show the use of highly selective inhibition of c-Met andprovide insight toward targeting tumors exhibiting differentmechanisms of cMet dysregulation. Mol Cancer Ther; 11(4); 1036–47. 2012 AACR.
Determination of carbendazim residues in fruit juices by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

In this paper a rapid optimized method for routine analysis of carbendazim residues in fruit juices is reported. The procedure is based on matrix solid-phase dispersion (MSPD) with diatomaceous earth and analysis of the extract by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, with electrospray ionization (LC–ESI-MS/MS). In the method optimization, finding of the optimal pH for the extraction of carbendazim from juice was particularly critical. Significant matrix effects were observed, but could be eliminated using matrix-matched standards. High recoveries (82–102%), good repeatability (RSD ≤ 12%) and low limits of detection (0.03 ng ml−1) and quantification (0.1 ng ml−1) were achieved with this method.
Shamba Maisha: randomized controlled trial of an agricultural and finance intervention to improve HIV health outcomes

Objectives:Food insecurity and HIV/AIDS outcomes are inextricably linked in sub-Saharan Africa. We report on health and nutritional outcomes of a multisectoral agricultural intervention trial among HIV-infected adults in rural Kenya. Design:This is a pilot cluster randomized controlled trial. Methods:The intervention included a human-powered water pump, a microfinance loan to purchase farm commodities, and education in sustainable farming practices and financial management. Two health facilities in Nyanza Region, Kenya were randomly assigned as intervention or control. HIV-infected adults 18 to 49 years’ old who were on antiretroviral therapy and had access to surface water and land were enrolled beginning in April 2012 and followed quarterly for 1 year. Data were collected on nutritional parameters, CD4+ T-lymphocyte counts, and HIV RNA. Differences in fixed-effects regression models were used to test whether patterns in health outcomes differed over time from baseline between the intervention and control arms. Results:We enrolled 72 and 68 participants in the intervention and control groups, respectively. At 12 months follow-up, we found a statistically significant increase in CD4+ cell counts (165 cells/&mgr;l, P < 0.001) and proportion virologically suppressed in the intervention arm compared with the control arm (comparative improvement in proportion of 0.33 suppressed, odds ratio 7.6, 95% confidence interval: 2.2–26.8). Intervention participants experienced significant improvements in food security (3.6 scale points higher, P < 0.001) and frequency of food consumption (9.4 times per week greater frequency, P = 0.013) compared to controls. Conclusion:Livelihood interventions may be a promising approach to tackle the intersecting problems of food insecurity, poverty and HIV/AIDS morbidity.
Adhd Rating Scale-IV: Checklists, Norms, and Clinical Interpretation

Introduction to ADHD Rating Scales. Factor Analysis. Standardization and Normative Data. Reliability and Validity. Interpretation and Use of Scales for Diagnostic and Screening Purposes. Interpretation and Use of Scales for Evaluating Treatment Outcome. Appendix: Rating Scales And Scoring Sheets. ADHD Rating Scale-IV: Home Version. ADHD Rating Scale-IV: Home Version (Spanish). Scoring Summary Sheet (Boys). Scoring Summary Sheet (Girls). ADHD Rating Scale-IV: School Version Scoring Summary Sheet (Boys). Scoring Summary Sheet (Girls).
Digital signatures: A tutorial survey

As paper gives way to electronic mail, a secure means for validating and authenticating messages is required. The answer could be one of several digital signature schemes. In the last few years, research in cryptography has provided various methods for generating digital signatures, both true and arbitrated. Some of these methods utilize conventional private-key cryptosystems such as the Data Encryption Standard (DES), while others are based on the so-called public-key approach. This article on digital signature schemes is a survey of work done in the area since the concept was introduced in 1976. For readers unfamiliar with modern cryptology several overview articles and a number of texts on the subject are noted among the list of references of this article.
Do GMM Phoneme Classifiers Perceive Synthetic Sibilants as Humans Do?

This study presents a psycholinguistically motivated evaluation method for phoneme classifiers by using non-categorical perceptual data elicited in a Japanese sibilant matching 2AFC task. Probability values of a perceptual [s]-[S] boundary, obtained from 42 speakers over a 7-step synthetic [s]-[S] continuum, were compared to probability estimates of Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) of Japanese [s] and [S]. The GMMs, trained on the Corpus of Spontaneous Japanese, differed in feature vectors (MFCC, PLP, acoustic features), covariance matrix types (full, tied, diagonal, spherical), and numbers of mixtures (1-20). Using ten-fold cross validation, it was found that GMMs trained on MFCC features had the best sibilant classification accuracies (87.4-90.4%), but their correlations with human perceptual data were non-conclusive (0.35-0.98). Acoustic feature-based GMMs with tied covariance matrices had near human-like synthetic stimuli perception (0.957-0.996), but their classification performance was poor (71.3-80.4%). Models trained on perceptual linear prediction (PLP) features were on par with the acoustic feature-based models in terms correlation to the perceptual experiment (0.884-0.995), while losing slightly on classification performance (86.1-88.9%) compared to MFCC models. Across the board correlation tests and mixture-effect models confirmed that GMMs with better sibilant classifying performance produced more human-like probability estimations on the synthetic sibilant continuum.
A tabu-embedded simulated annealing algorithm for a selective pickup and delivery problem

Several actors are involved in the transport of goods. To model freight transport, the di erent actors who take part in the decision making process have to be represented. In Maes et al. (2012) a conceptual framework is presented to model freight transport. The key actors in this framework are rms, carriers, and forwarders. This allows the model to work on an activity-based level, focusing on the di erent activities of each actor. The decision making process of carriers is one of the key aspects in modelling logistic decisions in a behaviour based transportation model. When modelling at an activity-based level, the behaviour of carriers has to be taken into account. The framework of Maes et al. (2012) formulates decisions of the carrier as a selective pickup and delivery problem (PDSP). This is a novel approach to model logistic decisions in models with the objective to explain and predict freight ows. One of the important decisions a carrier has to make is whether or not to accept a transport request in order to maximize his pro t. The selection of requests in a paired pickup and delivery problem is not often studied in literature. Next to this decision, he also needs to schedule the transport orders that are accepted into the di erent vehicles and construct a routing plan, given time and capacity limitations. The PDSP is NP-hard as it is a generalization of the travelling salesman problem. To be able to generate good results a Tabu-embedded Simulated Annealing (TSA) algorithm is proposed. This algorithm is initiated with a parallel insertion heuristic. Four local search operators are de ned to improve the initial solution. A distinction may be made between classical PDP search operators and search operators speci cally developed for the PDSP. Two new local search operators are de ned to deal with the selection of transport requests consisting of paired pickup and delivery locations. The TSA algorithm starts with the insertion heuristic to create a rst feasible solution. This solution is further improved by use of the improvement heuristic. Instead of repeating the tabu search until the procedure terminates, it is restarted from the current best solution after several iterations without any improvement. At the same time the global annealing temperature is reset. The generation of new best solutions is done using simulated annealing. To avoid cycling, the visited solutions are recorded into a tabu set, which contains the total pro t of a solution. Since the probability of two di erent solutions ha-
A novel two‐over‐two α‐helical sandwich fold is characteristic of the truncated hemoglobin family

Small hemoproteins displaying amino acid sequences 20–40 residues shorter than (non‐)vertebrate hemoglobins (Hbs) have recently been identified in several pathogenic and non‐pathogenic unicellular organisms, and named ‘truncated hemoglobins’ (trHbs). They have been proposed to be involved not only in oxygen transport but also in other biological functions, such as protection against reactive nitrogen species, photosynthesis or to act as terminal oxidases. Crystal structures of trHbs from the ciliated protozoan Paramecium caudatum and the green unicellular alga Chlamydomonas eugametos show that the tertiary structure of both proteins is based on a ‘two‐over‐two’ α‐helical sandwich, reflecting an unprecedented editing of the classical ‘three‐over‐three’ α‐helical globin fold. Based on specific Gly–Gly motifs the tertiary structure accommodates the deletion of the N‐terminal A‐helix and replacement of the crucial heme‐binding F‐helix with an extended polypeptide loop. Additionally, concerted structural modifications allow burying of the heme group and define the distal site, which hosts a TyrB10, GlnE7 residue pair. A set of structural and amino acid sequence consensus rules for stabilizing the fold and the bound heme in the trHbs homology subfamily is deduced.
Optimal Distributed Detection in Clustered Wireless Sensor Networks: The Weighted Median

− In a clustered, multi-hop sensor network, a large number of inexpensive, geographically-distributed sensor nodes each use their observations of the environment to make local hard (0/1) decisions about whether an event has occurred. Each node then transmits its local decision over one or more wireless hops to the clusterhead. When all local decisions have been gathered by the clusterhead, it fuses them into a final hard decision about the event. Two sources of error affect the clusterhead’s final decision: (i) local decision errors made by the sensor nodes because of noisy measurements or unreliable sensors, and (ii) bit errors affecting each hop on the wireless communication channel. Previous work assumed error-free communication or a single-hop cluster. We show that if both of these sources of error are considered, then the optimal data fusion algorithm at the clusterhead is a weighted median. The optimal weights are shown to be functions of the bit error probability of the channel and the ring from which the local decision originated. We determine: the error probability of this optimal fusion algorithm; the effect of adding more nodes or rings to the cluster; and the tradeoff between energy consumed in the network and the decision error probability. This paper thus provides tools to add the effect of measurement and communication errors to other tradeoffs in the design of clustered sensor networks.
Greek Talented Students’ Motivation: A Qualitative Analysis

Abstract This article presents one of the few recent attempts to investigate aspects of motivation of Greek gifted students. This effort is particularly challenging since gifted education in Greece is a nonexistent concept, and any study of Greek gifted students has to overcome obstacles related to definition, location and identification of gifted students. The present study investigated the motivation of 10 Greek talented students who had won national and international competitions in different fields of talent. The method of investigation was qualitative through interviews. Their narrations demonstrated that their occupation with what would later become their talents, started either by chance, or by a member of the family who distinguished some ability and operated as their mentor. In the process all participants described mastery goal orientation motivating their actions, until they started participating in competitions, where performance orientation operated additionally to their existing mastery orientation. In general, their behavior was directed by approach motivation, while avoidance motivation did not seem to be present at all.
Robots, Objects, Humans: Towards Seamless Interaction in Intelligent Environments - Supporting Complex Cooperative Interactions between Humans and Technical Systems in Real World Scenarios through Cognitive Objects

Future intelligent environments will be inhabited by humans, robots and ‘Smart Objects’ and allow for seamless interaction beyond the desktop. These environments therefore have to be adaptive, self-organizing, provide autonomous reasoning and integrate a variety of heterogenous hardware, objects, sensors and actuators – which goes far beyond merely interconnecting different kinds of technology. In light of the dawn of personal robotics, these environments should be equally usable and supportive for humans and robots. Manipulation tasks involving physical objects are at core of the interaction in these environments. This places novel challenges on the involved ‘Smart Objects’. We present an approach for supporting robotic systems in the interaction with physical objects while maintaining human usability and functionality by using so-called ‘Cognitive Objects’. We describe our infrastructure to support developing, simulating, testing and deploying of pervasive computing systems, using ROS (Robot Operating System) as middleware, and present several application scenarios. The scenarios are not limited to the robotics domain, but include location-aware services, intelligent environments and mobile interaction therein. Based on our experience, recommendations for the design of ‘Cognitive Objects’ (CO) and environments are given, to address the individual strengths of humans and machines and to foster new synergies in shared human-robot environments.
Closed-form Approximation for the Trade-Off between Energy Efficiency and Spectral Efficiency in the Uplink of Cellular Network

In this paper we propose a tight closed-form approximation of the Energy Efficiency vs. Spectral Efficiency (EE-SE) trade-off for the uplink of a cellular communication system. We model the uplink of the cellular system by considering the Wyner model with Raleigh fading. We first demonstrate the accuracy of our expression by comparing it with Monte-Carlo simulation and the EE-SE trade-off expression based on lowpower approximation. Results show the great tightness of our expression with Monte-Carlo simulation. We utilize our closed-form for assessing the EE performance of base station (BS) cooperation against non-cooperative system for both a theoretical power model and a realistic power model. The theoretical power model includes only the transmit power, whereas the realistic power model incorporates the backhaul and signal processing powers in addition of the transmit power. Results indicate that BS cooperation is more energy efficient than non cooperative system and the former always outperforms the latter in terms of EE-SE trade-off. This is however no more the case with the realistic power model: the EE performance is then highly dependent on the number of cooperating BSs.
Polyhedral model retrieval using weighted point sets

Due to the recent improvements in laser scanning technology, 3D visualization and modeling, there is an increasing need for tools supporting the automatic search for 3D objects in archives. In this paper we describe a new geometric approach to 3D shape comparison and retrieval for arbitrary objects described by 3D polyhedral models that may contain gaps. In contrast with existing approaches, our approach takes the overall relative spatial location into account by representing the 3D shape as a weighted point set. To compare two objects geometrically, we generate for each object a weighted point set, which represents for each non-empty grid cell a salient point. We compare three methods to obtain in each grid cell a salient point and a weight: (1) choose the vertex in the cell with the highest Gaussian curvature, and choose as weight a measure for that curvature, (2) choose the area-weighted mean of the vertices in the cell, and choose as weight a measure denoting the normal variation of the facets in the cell and (3) choose the center of mass of all vertices in the cell, and choose as weight one. Finally, we compute the similarity between two shapes by comparing their weighted point sets using a new shape similarity measure based on weight transportation that is a variation of the Earth Mover's Distance. Unlike the Earth Mover's Distance, the new shape similarity measure satisfies the triangle inequality. This property makes it suitable for use in indexing schemes that depend on the triangle inequality, such as the one we introduce, based on so-called vantage objects. The strength of our approach is proven through experimental results using a database consisting of 133 models such as mugs, cars and boats, and a database consisting of 512 models, mostly air planes, classified into conventional air planes, delta-jets, multi-fuselages, biplanes, helicopters and other models. The results show that the retrieval performance is better than related shape matching methods.