Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Acoustic space partition based on broad phonetic class for ensemble acoustic modeling

Ensemble acoustic modeling can be used to model different factors that cause variability of acoustic space, and provide different combination to improve the performance of automatic speech recognition (ASR). One of the main concerns is how to partition the training data set to several subsets based on which ensemble models are trained. In this study, we focus on ensemble acoustic modeling concerned with acoustic variability caused by gender and accent for Chinese large vocabulary continuous speech recognition (LVCSR). Considering that gender and accent information may be encoded in local acoustic realizations of a few specific phonetic classes rather than in a global acoustic distribution, we proposed a acoustic space partition method based on broad phonetic class (BPC) modeling of speaker for ensemble acoustic modeling. With the principal component analysis (PCA) of the BPC based speaker representation, we designed two level hierarchical data partitions in the low dimensional speaker factor space that concerned with gender and accent information. Ensemble acoustic models were trained on the partitioned data sets on both levels. Speech recognition results showed that using acoustic models trained based on the first level and second level partitions got 9.73% and 32.29% relative improvements in character error reduction rate, respectively.
QoS and micromobility coupling integrated with UMTS

QoS is one of the big challenges the Internet protocol designers are facing during the last few years. The complexity of the problem requires network overprovisioning to avoid bottlenecks. However, in wireless networks in which the spectrum is very expensive, such an approach does not seem economically viable and needs to offer QoS guarantees. In addition, the adoption of an all-IP network paradigm as the basis for the future wireless networks is putting a great demand on QoS mechanisms that can deal with the mobility of the nodes without compromising the provided QoS. We present an integration of the RSVP protocol with the HMIP micromobility protocol to improve the QoS guarantees which are given in micromobility scenarios. We demonstrate, through extensive simulations, how this approach outperforms both the TCP and UDP transport in the traditional use of RSVP for these scenarios.
Rapid Synthesis of a Long Double-Stranded Oligonucleotide from a Single-Stranded Nucleotide Using Magnetic Beads and an Oligo Library

Chemical synthesis of oligonucleotides is a widely used tool in the field of biochemistry. Several methods for gene synthesis have been introduced in the growing area of genomics. In this paper, a novel method of constructing dsDNA is proposed. Short (28-mer) oligo fragments from a library were assembled through successive annealing and ligation processes, followed by PCR. First, two oligo fragments annealed to form a dsDNA molecule. The double-stranded oligo was immobilized onto magnetic beads (solid support) via streptavidin-biotin binding. Next, single-stranded oligo fragments were added successively through ligation to form the complete DNA molecule. The synthesized DNA was amplified through PCR and gel electrophoresis was used to characterize the product. Sanger sequencing showed that more than 97% of the nucleotides matched the expected sequence. Extending the length of the DNA molecule by adding single-stranded oligonucleotides from a basis set (library) via ligation enables a more convenient and rapid mechanism for the design and synthesis of oligonucleotides on the go. Coupled with an automated dispensing system and libraries of short oligo fragments, this novel DNA synthesis method would offer an efficient and cost-effective method for producing dsDNA.
Evolutionary algorithm to ab initio protein structure prediction with hydrophobic interactions

Proteins are polymers whose chains are composed of 20 different monomers, called amino acids. The problem of Protein Structure Prediction (PSP) is the determination of protein 3D conformation from its amino acid sequence. Two main strategies are usually employed to work with PSP: homology and Ab initio approaches. This paper presents an Evolutionary Algorithm to PSP using an Ab initio approach (ProtPred). The predictions are evaluated using fitness functions based on potential energies (electrostatic and van der Waals) and hydrophobic interactions. The proposed approach uses dihedral angles and main angles of the lateral chains to model a protein structure. ProtPred is evaluated using relatively complex cases for an Ab initio approach. Results have shown that ProtPred is a consistent approach.
What is the shadow price of crime and bereavement to well-being?

This paper addresses the question of when and to what degree individuals are af- fected by positive and negative changes in their lives. We look at a wide range of shocks, including …nancial, marital, and personal shocks, but we are particularly interested in the impact of the deaths of partners and the occurence of crime. We trace the impact of these shocks on life satisfaction before they actually occur (the anticipation eect), the adaptation to the shocks after they occur (the adaptation eect) and the happiness characteristics of individuals who are subject to these shocks (the selection eect). With an eye on the amount of compensation that would need to be paid to victims of crime and to the partners of those that die unnecessarily (for instance due to negligence or in an accident), we then compute the money equivalent of each shock, …nding that the average criminal event can be o¤-set by a windfall income gain of about 14,000 US, whilst the loss of a partner is the most expensive shock that would have to be o¤-set by a windfall income gain of about 200,000 US.
Identification of regulatory RNAs in Bacillus subtilis

Post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms are widespread in bacteria. Interestingly, current published data hint that some of these mechanisms may be non-random with respect to their phylogenetic distribution. Although small, trans-acting regulatory RNAs commonly occur in bacterial genomes, they have been better characterized in Gram-negative bacteria, leaving the impression that they may be less important for Firmicutes. It has been presumed that Gram-positive bacteria, in particular the Firmicutes, are likely to utilize cis-acting regulatory RNAs located within the 5′ mRNA leader region more often than trans-acting regulatory RNAs. In this analysis we catalog, by a deep sequencing-based approach, both classes of regulatory RNA candidates for Bacillus subtilis, the model microorganism for Firmicutes. We successfully recover most of the known small RNA regulators while also identifying a greater number of new candidate RNAs. We anticipate these data to be a broadly useful resource for analysis of post-transcriptional regulatory strategies in B. subtilis and other Firmicutes.
Subconjunctival Bevacizumab for Primary Pterygium Excision; a Randomized Clinical Trial

Purpose To evaluate the local safety of bevacizumab and its effect on recurrence of primary pterygium excision. Methods This randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial was conducted on 44 eyes of 44 patients randomized to Group 1 (bevacizumab) and Group 2 (balanced salt solution). Group 1 underwent pterygium excision with a rotational conjunctival flap and received a total of 7.5 mg subconjunctival bevacizumab (5 mg/0.2 mL on the day of surgery and 2.5 mg/0.1 mL on the fourth day after surgery). Group 2 received balanced salt solution in the same manner. Recurrence, defined as any fibrovascular tissue crossing the limbus, and the number of patients with >1.5 mm fibrovascular overgrowth on the cornea were compared between the study groups. Results There was no statistically significant difference between the study groups in terms of demographics, pterygium size, daily sun exposure, preoperative visual acuity, keratomeric readings, corneal astigmatism, or IOP (P>0.05). Three and four patients in each group at the three- and six-month visits, respectively, had more than 1.5 mm fibrovascular tissue overgrowth on the cornea (P=1 and 0.62, respectively). At the three-month visit, 3 patients in Group 1 versus 7 patients in Group 2 (P=0.13), and at the six-month visit 4 patients in Group 1 versus 8 patients in Group 2 (P=0.17) had fibrovascular tissue crossing the limbus. Patients in Group 1 experienced a statistically significant rise in IOP at the one-week visit (P=0.007). Conclusion Bevacizumab had no significant effect on the recurrence rate of pterygium. Although the frequency of fibrovascular tissue crossing the limbus in the bevacizumab group was half that of the BSS group, the difference failed to reach a statistically significant level.
Finite element modeling of electromagnetic signal propagation in a phantom arm

Improving the control of artificial arms remains a considerable challenge. It may be possible to graft remaining peripheral nerves in an amputated limb to spare muscles in or near the residual limb and use these nerve-muscle grafts as additional myoelectric control signals. This would allow simultaneous control of multiple degrees of freedom (DOF) and could greatly improve the control of artificial limbs. For this technique to be successful, the electromyography (EMG) signals from the nerve-muscle grafts would need to be independent of each other with minimal crosstalk. To study EMG signal propagation and quantify crosstalk, finite element (FE) models were developed in a phantom-arm model. The models were validated with experimental data collected by applying sinusoidal excitations to a phantom-arm model and recording the surface electric potential distribution. There was a very high correlation (r>0.99) between the FEM data and the experimental data, with the error in signal magnitude generally less than 5%. Simulations were then performed using muscle dielectric properties with static, complex, and full electromagnetic solvers. The results indicate that significant displacement currents can develop (>50% of total current) and that the fall-off of surface signal power varies with how the signal source is modeled.
Social Book Search Track: ISM@CLEF'16 Suggestion Task

This paper describes the work that we did at Indian School of Mines towards Social Book Search Track for CLEF 2016. As per requirement of CLEF-2016 we submitted six runs in its Suggestion Task. We investigated individual effect of title, group, request, as well as combined effect of title, request and group fields of the topics in our runs. For all the runs we used language modeling technique with Dirichlet smoothing. The run using combined effect of title, request and group field was our best. Overall, our performance is good but it needs some improvement, our scores are encouraging enough to work for better results in future.
Drofenine: a 2-APB analog with improved selectivity for human TRPV3

Transient receptor potential vanilloid‐3 (TRPV3) is a member of the TRPV subfamily of TRP ion channels. The physiological functions of TRPV3 are not fully understood, in part, due to a lack of selective agonists and antagonists that could both facilitate the elucidation of roles for TRPV3 in mammalian physiology as well as potentially serve as therapeutic agents to modulate conditions for which altered TRPV3 function has been implicated. In this study, the Microsource Spectrum Collection was screened for TRPV3 agonists and antagonists using alterations in calcium flux in TRPV3 overexpressing human embryonic kidney‐293 (HEK‐293) cells. The antispasmodic agent drofenine was identified as a new TRPV3 agonist. Drofenine exhibited similar potency to the known TRPV3 agonists 2‐aminoethoxydiphenylboronate (2‐APB) and carvacrol in HEK‐293 cells, but greater selectivity for TRPV3 based on a lack of activation of TRPA1, V1, V2, V4, or M8. Multiple inhibitors were also identified, but all of the compounds were either inactive or not specific. Drofenine activated TRPV3 via interactions with the residue, H426, which is required for TRPV3 activation by 2‐APB. Drofenine was a more potent agonist of TRPV3 and more cytotoxic than either carvacrol or 2‐APB in human keratinocytes and its effect on TRPV3 in HaCaT cells was further demonstrated using the antagonist icilin. Due to the lack of specificity of existing TRPV3 modulators and the expression of multiple TRP channels in cells/tissue, drofenine may be a valuable probe for elucidating TRPV3 functions in complex biological systems. Identification of TRPV3 as a target for drofenine may also suggest a mechanism by which drofenine acts as a therapeutic agent.
What effect on learning does increasing the proportion of curriculum time allocated to physical education have? A systematic review and meta-analysis

An increased focus on standardized testing of students has had the unintended effect of eroding curriculum time allocated to physical education (PE). The empirical literature on increasing the proportion of total curriculum time allocated to PE was reviewed and a series of meta-analyses conducted to estimate the mean effect of doing so on student learning. After combining results across six studies that were absent of additional intervention, we found pooled effect sizes of 0.41 standard deviations on student learning across cognitive, affective and psychomotor learning outcomes. The evidence for the meta-analyses came from PE programmes implemented in primary and secondary schools from four Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development countries. Although findings affirmed that increasing the proportion of curriculum allocation to PE had no detrimental effect on student learning, further analyses illustrated the disparity of learning effects across the three learning domains.
Towards Maximizing Instructional Time: The Nature and Extent of Externally-Imposed Classroom Interruptions

Prompted at least in part by continuing expectations of enhanced student performance and greater professional accountability, schools and school districts are demonstrating increased awareness of the need to optimize the use of allotted instructional time. This study investigated the nature and extent of interruptions to teaching and learning sessions originating beyond the physical boundaries of the classroom. Both survey questionnaires and non-participant observation strategies were used to determine the sources and frequencies of externally-imposed classroom interruptions at a dozen schools in three rural school districts in Western Canada. The results indicate that estimates of class intrusions may be underestimated and more concerted efforts may be necessary to address the problem.
Efficient order picking based on community detection

Order picking is the most labour-intensive and costly activity for almost every warehouse. In general, travel time of pickers during the order picking process is the dominant component of the total order picking time. This paper proposes an approach to decrease travel time by sharply cut down the step time in each picking operation. The reduction of step time is fulfilled by putting the goods nearby, which appear in a single order with higher probability. Social network and community detection are introduced into the discovering of the items which may be picked together in one picking operation. This method can bring higher efficiency and lower operation cost for distribution centers, and consequently for the whole supply chain.
Combining Adaptive Filtering and IF Flows to Detect DDoS Attacks within a Router

Traffic matrix-based anomaly detection and DDoS attacks detection in networks are research focus in the network security and traffic measurement community. In this paper, firstly, a new type of unidirectional flow called IF flow is proposed. Merits and features of IF flows are analyzed in detail and then two efficient methods are introduced in our DDoS attacks detection and evaluation scheme. The first method uses residual variance ratio to detect DDoS attacks after Recursive Least Square (RLS) filter is applied to predict IF flows. The second method uses generalized likelihood ratio (GLR) statistical test to detect DDoS attacks after a Kalman filter is applied to estimate IF flows. Based on the two complementary methods, an evaluation formula is proposed to assess the seriousness of current DDoS attacks on router ports. Furthermore, the sensitivity of three types of traffic (IF flow, input link and output link) to DDoS attacks is analyzed and compared. Experiments show that IF flow has more power to expose anomaly than the other two types of traffic. Finally, two proposed methods are compared in terms of detection rate, processing speed, etc., and also compared in detail with Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Cumulative Sum (CUSUM) methods. The results demonstrate that adaptive filter methods have higher detection rate, lower false alarm rate and smaller detection lag time.
Interaction, Computability, and Church's Thesis Interaction, Computability, and Church's Thesis Contents 1. Interaction Machines 1.1. Sequential Interaction Machines (sims) 1.2. Interactive Behavior and Expressiveness 1.3. Multi-stream Interaction Machines (mims) 2. Extensions of Expressiveness 2.1.

This article formalizes the claim that interactive finite computing agents are more expre than Turing machines. The impact of models of interaction on Church’s thesis and Godel’s incomple result is explored. The evolution from algorithmic to interactive models of computation in computer a tecture, software engineering, and AI is considered in a final section.
Increase the Security Level for Real-Time Application Using New Key Management Solution

A real-time application Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is the technology that enables data packets transmission over internet protocol (IP). Security is of concern whenever open networks are to be used. In general, the real-time applications suffer from packet latency and loss due to the nature of IP network. Cryptographic systems may be used to achieve the security goals, but their impact on the Quality of Services (QoS) should be minimized. Most of the known encryption algorithms are computationally expensive resulting in a significant amount of time added to packet delay. A real-time application Voice over IP (VoIP) is usually used by public users resulting in a key exchange problem and a trusted intermediate authority normally takes this responsibility. In this paper, the security goals were enhanced via a proposed cryptographic system to maintain the security on VoIP. The proposed solution consists of a simple, but strong encryption/decryption algorithm as well as an embedded method to exchange the keys between the users.
A Decision Support System for Placement of Intrusion Detection and Prevention Devices in Large-Scale Networks

This article describes an innovative Decision Support System (DSS) for Placement of Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (PIDPS) in large-scale communication networks. PIDPS is intended to support network security personnel in optimizing the placement and configuration of malware filtering and monitoring devices within Network Service Providers’ (NSP) infrastructure, and enterprise communication networks. PIDPS meshes innovative and state-of-the-art mechanisms borrowed from the domains of graph theory, epidemic modeling, and network simulation. Scalable network exploitation models enable to define the communication patterns induced by network users (thereby establishing a virtual overlay network), and parallel attack models enable a PIDPS user to define various interdependent network attacks such as: Internet worms, Trojans horses, Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, and others. PIDPS incorporates a set of deployment strategies (employing graph-theoretic centrality measures) in order to facilitate intelligent placement of filtering and monitoring devices; as well as a dedicated network simulator in order to evaluate the various deployments. Experiments with PIDPS indicate that incorporating knowledge on the overlay network (network exploitation patterns) into the placement and configuration of malware filtering and monitoring devices substantially improves the effectiveness of intrusion detection and prevention systems in NSP and enterprise networks.
Prospects for a Hollow Frontier in Mexico’s Yucatán #242

This article investigates the behavioral drivers of pasture creation and associated implications for deforestation in a 22,000 km2 agricultural frontier spanning the base of Mexico‘s southern Yucatán. After developing a theoretical model that highlights the role of social networks and information spillovers with respect to the decision to begin cattle ranching, we use household data to estimate an econometric duration model of the determinants of pasture creation. Although pasture fi ts well with the typical household‘s resource constraints, its continued expansion contributes to a hollow frontier dynamic in which the spread of low-value cattle ranching coincides with decreasing population. JEL Classifi cation: Q15, R22
Intrachromosomal Amplification, Locus Deletion and Point Mutation in the Aquaglyceroporin AQP1 Gene in Antimony Resistant Leishmania (Viannia) guyanensis

Background Antimony resistance complicates the treatment of infections caused by the parasite Leishmania. Methodology/Principal Findings Using next generation sequencing, we sequenced the genome of four independent Leishmania guyanensis antimony-resistant (SbR) mutants and found different chromosomal alterations including aneuploidy, intrachromosomal gene amplification and gene deletion. A segment covering 30 genes on chromosome 19 was amplified intrachromosomally in three of the four mutants. The gene coding for the multidrug resistance associated protein A involved in antimony resistance was also amplified in the four mutants, most likely through chromosomal translocation. All mutants also displayed a reduced accumulation of antimony mainly due to genomic alterations at the level of the subtelomeric region of chromosome 31 harboring the gene coding for the aquaglyceroporin 1 (LgAQP1). Resistance involved the loss of LgAQP1 through subtelomeric deletions in three mutants. Interestingly, the fourth mutant harbored a single G133D point mutation in LgAQP1 whose role in resistance was functionality confirmed through drug sensitivity and antimony accumulation assays. In contrast to the Leishmania subspecies that resort to extrachromosomal amplification, the Viannia strains studied here used intrachromosomal amplification and locus deletion. Conclusions/Significance This is the first report of a naturally occurred point mutation in AQP1 in antimony resistant parasites.
On implementing sphere decoding algorithms in LTE-A uplink with the presence of CFO

To facilitate the engineering implementation of a specific detection algorithm for practical MIMO systems, it is important to know how its performance changes with certain system parameters. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of sphere decoding (SD) algorithms which fall into the category of reduced-complexity maximum likelihood (ML) algorithms, with minimum mean-square error (MMSE) algorithm used as the benchmark for comparison, in the application scenario of LTE-A uplink. The implementation scheme of SD algorithms established in this paper takes the compensation of carrier frequency offset (CFO) into consideration, and makes a replacement of MMSE with full functionalities. Based on the simulation results generated by a simulation platform compliant with 3GPP standards, the performance gain of SD with respect to MMSE is analyzed in the aspects of its varying trends related to CFO and the number of receive antennas. Consequently, the robustness of SD algorithms against CFO, as well as other properties concerning the applicability of SD algorithms are verified, thereby shedding light on how to implement SD algorithms for LTE-A uplink.